Kerala govt to regularise 20,000 aided school teachers pending SC verdict

The Kerala government has decided to extend the relaxation allowed to Nair Service Society (NSS) on appointments to posts other than those reserved for the differently abled to other aided school managements too, subject to the verdict on petitions pending before the Supreme Court.

Addressing a press conference in Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday, Minister for General Education V. Sivankutty said nearly 20,000 teachers working in aided schools would benefit from the decision. All benefits due to them from the date of appointment would be ensured, the Minister said.

The case related to the appointments will be taken up by the Supreme Court on April 14. However, since the first phase of differently abled appointments through the district-level committees set up as per a Supreme Court directive was completed on January 24 and the second phase had begun and in the wake of a High Court Single Bench directive that other petitioners too were eligible for the relaxation given to NSS and the government seeking the opinion of the Advocate General yet again, it was decided to regularise appointments made to general category posts too, he said.

The government had also obtained the legal opinion that regularisation of 442 teachers who had submitted special leave petitions should be paused till the final verdict by the apex court or it would amount to contempt of court, he said.