Education officers face 100 contempt of Court cases
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, July 13, 2013:
Whereas top-ranking officers of Education Department have been facing more than 100 cases of contempt of Court, School Education Department accounts for 2000 cases out of 3000 cases pending in the High Court.
Top officials of School Education Department have been enduring severe difficulties just in managing files and official matters of teachers working in the department, said an official source.
The department is entangled in numerous cases about non-payment of senior scale pay to teachers and petitions filed by teachers who retired as in-charge Headmasters seeking pension commensurate to the pay of Headmasters.
As per the State Government procedure, due verification is done by local fund audit which should be corresponded by Finance Department's concurrence before an employee is given senior scale pay.
For the huge number of teachers working in School Education Department, the process of verification by local audits and seeking concurrence of Finance Department take 2/3 years.
On the other hand, employees seeking senior scale pay went to Court in the meantime and Courts directed the Government to give senior scale pay as early as possible.
However, the department is unable to follow the Courts' orders, and as a result the department is facing a large number of contemot of Court cases, informed the source.
Out of 3000 cases pending in the High Court, School Education Department accounts for more than 2000 cases.
Follies and anomalies committed by former officers is another factor of increasing the number of petitions directed against the department, added the source.