Fixed-Pay Appointments Unconstitutional: Tripura HC

• By Thetripurapost Desk, Agartala
• Jan 08, 2026
• 1401

In a judgment of historic magnitude, the Tripura High Court has dismantled a decades-old employment regime by declaring the state government’s fixed-pay appointment policy unconstitutional. The verdict, delivered by a Division Bench comprising Chief Justice M. S. Ramachandra Rao and Justice Biswajit Palit, brings decisive closure to a series of long-pending writ petitions filed by employees appointed against regular posts but paid a fixed, reduced salary for years.

The court held that appointing teachers, non-teaching staff, and other government employees on fixed remuneration despite their engagement against sanctioned, permanent posts amounted to a gross violation of fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution.

Terming the policy arbitrary, exploitative, and legally unsustainable, the Bench observed that the state could not justify prolonged financial deprivation of employees under the guise of administrative convenience.

In a far-reaching direction, the High Court ordered that all such employees appointed from 2001 onwards must be placed on regular pay scales with retrospective effect from the very date of their initial appointment. The court further mandated payment of arrears along with 9 per cent interest, underscoring the state’s prolonged failure to correct an unlawful practice. The ruling also invalidates the recruitment rules framed in 2000 and 2007, under which the fixed-pay system was institutionalised during the previous Left Front regime.

The judgment strongly criticised the policy of compelling unemployed youth to work for five years or more on diminished wages, despite being recruited to permanent posts, calling it antithetical to constitutional morality and the principle of equal pay for equal work. By striking down the offending rules, the court has extended the benefit of regularisation and full financial entitlements to thousands of affected employees across multiple government departments.

Senior advocate Purushottam Roy Barman, who represented the petitioners, described the verdict as transformative, stating that it restores dignity, fairness, and legality to public employment in Tripura. He noted that the ruling would have enduring implications, not only financially for the state but also institutionally, by reinforcing constitutional safeguards against exploitative labour practices.

While the decision is expected to impose a significant fiscal responsibility on the state government, it has been widely welcomed as a long-overdue affirmation of justice for employees who endured unequal treatment for more than two decades.