The Meghalaya High Court will decide whether the State government has failed to implement the Contributor Provident Fund Scheme for grant-in-aid college teachers in the State.
It may be mentioned that college teachers under the banner of Meghalaya College Teachers’ Association (MCTA) had moved the court seeking social security benefits under the Contributor Provident Fund Scheme after they retired from service.
The Supreme Court in its order passed on August 24 in Civil Appeal No(s) 5778-5779 of 2022 (The State of Meghalaya vs Meghalaya College Teachers’ Association) has sent back the case to the Meghalaya High Court to decide and dispose of the writ petitions filed by the Meghalaya College Teachers’ Association on the matter.
“The matters are remanded to the High Court to consider the grievance on behalf of the original writ petitioners with respect to non-implementation of the Meghalaya Act, 1969 and the Provident Fund Scheme under the aforesaid Act, if any. To that extent, it will be open for the original writ petitioners to amend the writ petitions to which it will be open for the State to file the counter. However, it is specifically made clear that the remand shall be only to consider the implementation of the Meghalaya Act, 1969 and the Provident Fund Scheme framed thereunder, if any, only and the High Court on the basis of the pleadings (even after the amendment) to consider which part of the Act 1969/scheme framed under the Meghalaya Act, 1969 has not been complied with by the State and/or to what extent the same are not complied with. Only for the aforesaid purpose, the matters are remanded to the High Court. The High Court to finally decide and dispose of the writ petitions, on remand, within a period of six months from the date of receipt of the present order,” the Supreme Court said in its order.
During a hearing in the Meghalaya High Court on October 10, the division bench of the court allowed the lawyer of MCTA to file an amended petition without any further necessity to refer to the original petition.
The High Court also asked the lawyers of the State government and other respondents to file their affidavits-in-opposition to the MCTA amended petition, including the pleadings retained from the original petition. The court also fixed November 28 as the date for hearing.
