New Delhi: The Supreme Court is likely to hear an application filed by Odisha government seeking clarification on the Orissa High Court order of August 2018 regarding grant-in-aid benefits to the teaching and non-teaching staff in the state next week.
The Orissa High Court had declared some clauses of the 2017 grant-in-aid order arbitrary and unconstitutional. Lata Nayak, lecturer of a college in Sundargarh, had filed a petition in the HC challenging a clause of the grant-in-aid order 2017 which made it mandatory for teachers to withdraw any case filed for seeking benefits as per 1994 order if they want to avail benefits under grant-in-aid 2017.
Following the High Court order, the state government had filed an application in the Supreme Court seeking clarification whether the HC order in Lata Nayak case is applicable in all cases filed for availing benefits of grant-in-aid.
Meanwhile, a two-judge bench of apex court comprising Justice Arun Mishra and Justice Navin Sinha Wednesday dismissed five petitions filed by Block Grant Teachers.
The Supreme Court had February 6, 2017 directed the state government to pay the arrears of the teachers as per their entitlement.
The Additional Solicitor General, October 4, 2017, had made submission in the court while arguing for the state, “The state government has decided as per the negotiated settlement to give grant-in-aid. All employees of Block Grant Institutions will get grant–in-aid with effect from January 1, 2018.”
The state government had also issued a gazette notification October 22, 2017 in this regard discussing their plans on paying the teachers.
The Supreme Court November 14, 2017, had disposed off the cases filed by more than 5000 aggrieved Block Grant Teachers who had approached the apex court in February 2017 seeking fulfillment of their pending demands from the state government.
