Teachers’ appointment: Apex court dismisses ‘frivolous’ contempt plea

KARACHI:

The Supreme Court has dismissed as “frivolous” the contempt-of-court application filed against the Sindh government by 3,000 teacher candidates.

Justices Khilji Arif Hussain and Sarmad Jalal Osmany heard the matter at the Supreme Court’s Karachi registry on Thursday. The petitioners had submitted that despite a verdict in their favour, the Sindh government had cancelled the entire process of recruitment of school teachers.

The controversy goes back to 2006, when the candidates were given job offer letters, but later in 2008, the entire process of recruitment was suspended. The aspirants moved the high court over the issue, which decided a number of identical petitions and ordered the government to scrutinise the cases individually and appoint them if they qualify. On the ground that the provincial government is violating the high court’s judgment and has cancelled the entire process without assigning any reason, the candidates later went to the Sindh High Court and the Supreme Court.

On Thursday, Sindh Education Secretary Siddique Memon argued before the bench that no contempt can be made out of the issue, as the Sindh government has complied with the orders of the Supreme Court as well as the Sindh High Court and a compliance report has also been submitted with the latter.

The apex court bench after his statement dismissed the contempt pleas and directed the high court to pass an appropriate order on the government’s compliance report. “In case the report has not been filed, the petitioners can file a contempt application again,” it was stated.

In a related development, high court’s Justices Munib Akhtar and Aftab Ahmed Gorar ordered the issuance of notices to all the executive district officers and district officers of the Sindh Education Department. The plea was submitted by Amanullah and others against the non-issuance of their posting orders as primary school teachers.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 6^th, 2012.