Hyderabad: Telangana high court has suspended proceedings issued by the education department cancelling the appointment of 35 junior lecturers (JLs) and directed state govt to reinstate them in service forthwith, holding that their appointments cannot be cancelled over allegations of fake postgraduate certificates without conducting an inquiry and giving them an opportunity to defend themselves.
Justice K Sarath passed the interim orders on Wednesday while hearing a batch of petitions challenging the Oct 1 proceedings issued by the director of Intermediate education. It also noted that the lecturers had served the department for more than 10 years.
“This discrepancy required an inquiry and an opportunity for the lecturers to explain their position,” the judge said. The judge also clarified that the interim order would not prevent the authorities from initiating departmental proceedings in accordance with law. In response, the court observed that the lecturers had produced university letters certifying the genuineness of their certificates, while subsequent communications from the same universities questioned their authenticity. Relying on Supreme Court judgments, the court held that termination based on allegations of misconduct, which carries a stigma, cannot be treated as a simple discharge from service without following due procedure.