Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Deb made another controversial statement when he slammed the officials for citing rules and court orders. Speaking at the 26th biennial conference of Tripura Civil Service Officers Association (TCSOA) organized at Rabindra Satabarshiki Bhavan on Saturday in Agartala, the CM said that he does not like that some officers talk about contempt of court while implementing government decisions.
He asked the officials not to tell him that court orders will create problems in the system. He asked, “what kind of problem will this create in the system?” He said that people say that they can’t take risks because that may be contempt of court order. I want to know who has been sent to jail on contempt of court charges. I am here, before you go, I will go to the court first, Biplab Kumar Deb said. He said that it is not easy to jail someone in contempt of court cases, because that needs police, and the police are under the control of the government, not courts, he said.
“The court will direct police, police will say we are looking for him but not getting. So, don’t be afraid of court etc,” the CM told the officials. “I am a tiger, not a court. We make laws and the court just implements them,” he then said.
The CM said, ‘Chief Secretary is saying that it cannot happen…I said Cabinet will take the decision and it will happen..how long we keep them waiting.. they get retired and this is an injustice to them..and they say Contempt of Court..as if Contempt looks like a tiger.. I am the tiger who is leading this government.. one who runs the government got the ultimate power..and this means it is the public with the ultimate power, public decides the government, the government is not decided by the court, the Court is for the people, not the other way around’.
The CM further said that government officers must listen to elected representatives and execute the projects and schemes without fearing rules, laws and court. He added that the elected government is the supreme.
The comments of Biplab Deb came in the wake of the issue of regularisation of SSA contractual teachers, which has led to a contempt of court case filed against the state govt.
It may be noted that while a High Court of Tripura verdict given earlier this year had ordered regularize the services of around 4000 SSA (Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan) contractual teachers, it was found that regularization of all education teachers under SSA would lead to violation of NCTE guidelines that might raise legal complications in the near future as among all the teachers considered for regularization, just 45 of them passed TET.
Also, 4,442 of the SSA teachers obtained the D.El.Ed degree after getting their contractual jobs but did not pass the TET exam. Apart from that, 195 teachers were without D.El.Ed or B.Ed degrees, and shockingly only 45 of them passed the secondary. This caused the Tripura government to consider the situation at hand and take important measures such that the regularization directed by the High Court does not violate the Right to Education Act.
According to reports, the Tripura government ultimately decided to comply with the verdict of the Tripura High Court after a recently held cabinet meeting. But unfortunately, a Contempt of court case was already filed against the Tripura government for the delay in implementing the verdict.
