A press release issued by the Mumbai Junior College Teachers Union (MJCTU) said Nazereen Khan, Surekha Khambete, Rajeshri Kalyanpur and N P Dubey were given open posts in the MV and LU College in July 1994.

The four continued in the same posts for the academic years '95-'96 and '96-'97, having obtained approval of their appointment from the deputydirector of education for two years, i.e., '94-'95 and '95-'96.

But the Deputy Director of Education didn't give his approval for the year '96-'97, saying the college had not filled up the backlog for the reserved posts. So the college management terminated their services from April 19, '97. At the same time, the management appointed four new teachers from reservedcategories in the same posts without conducting any interviews, the MJCTU press release said.

The dismissed teachers then appealed to the School Tribunal against the termination order, according to MJCTU president A J Singh. The Tribunal set aside the termination order on March 21, '98, and ordered that the four teachers be reinstated and paid back wages from the date of termination. The college management was also ordered to pay Rs 2,000 to each teacher towards the cost of the appeal, the release said. The college management challenged the Tribunal order in HC. The petition was admitted on July 6, '98, but Justice A P Shah didn't grant any stay on the Tribunal order.

The management then appealed before a division bench of HC against the order of the single judge. The division bench of Justice S M Variava and Justice S H Kapadia granted a stay on payment of back wages.

The management has already reinstated three teachers, Nazreen Khan, Surekha Khabete and Rajeshree Kalyanpur, but N P Dubey has decidednot to rejoin the college, Singh informed. During the period of court proceedings, none of the four teachers from the reserved categories appointed in place of the dismissed teachers received their salaries. Services of two of the reserved category teachers were terminated in the middle of '98. Another teacher resigned in August '98. The service of the fourth teacher was terminated after the division bench's order, Singh said.