Orissa high court orders reappointment of Hindi teacher

Cuttack: Orissa high court has directed the govt to reappoint a Hindi teacher who was rendered jobless following the reinstatement of another teacher, observing that the authorities had acted unfairly and without legal justification.Justice Dixit Krishna Shripad delivered the verdict on Sept 16 on a petition filed by Binodini Nayak, who had served over 20 years in an aided school in Balasore district after being appointed in Jan 2005.Her appointment in Udayanarayan Vidyapith (Dhobasila) followed the termination of Ramesh Chandra Parida’s service in Feb 2004 for unauthorised absence. Parida’s dismissal was upheld by the high court in 2018 and again in 2019.However, the Supreme Court ordered his reinstatement in April 2024. As a result, Nayak lost her job despite her long and unblemished career.Following her removal, Nayak requested authorities to accommodate her in any vacant post in an aided school. But the joint director of secondary education rejected her plea on Sept 13, 2024, stating that a review petition against Parida’s reinstatement was pending before the Supreme Court.

Nayak then approached the high court through lawyer Jitendra Kumar Lenka. Justice Shripad noted that the review petition had already been dismissed on Jan 19, 2025, making the ground for rejection non-existent. “Now the authorities cannot manufacture other grounds to deny appointment to the petitioner,” Justice Shripad observed in the judgment which was uploaded on Thursday.Accordingly, Justice Sghripad quashed the joint director’s order and directed authorities to reappoint Nayak under the block grant scheme. The reappointment must be made within 10 weeks in any school identified by the district education officer, Balasore, or another of similar category. Approval of the appointment must follow within three months, the court ruled.