'Backdoor Appointments': Tripura High Court Restrains Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council From Paying Salaries To Regularised Employees

The Tripura High Court recently restrained the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council, till further orders, from paying salaries to the to the part-time workers, casual workers and paid vouchers who have been regularised in absence of existence of sanctioned posts with approved scale of pay and allowances.

The Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC) is established under Schedule VI to the Constitution of India for administration of Tribal Areas in the State of Tripura. It is an instrumentality of the State prima facie, and falls within the definition of “State” under Article 12 of the Constitution of India.

The division bench comprising the Chief Justice M.S. Ramachandra Rao and Justice Biswajit Palit was hearing two writ petitions pleading that the TTAADC has made certain illegal and back door appointments in the Group C and Group D posts without following due process, without proper Advertisement and without inviting applications from the eligible candidates and without any selection process on pick and choose basis.

In the Counter Affidavits filed, it was admitted that the TTAADC has framed certain rules such as the TTAADC Civil Service (Leave) Rules, 2007, the TTAADC Civil Service (Pension) Rules, 2007, the TTAADC Civil Service (Travelling Allowance) Rules, 2007 and the TTAADC Civil Service (Appointment, Promotion, Conduct and Disciplinary) Rules, 2007, which govern the TTAADC in matters relating to recruitment, service matters, etc., the said Rules have not yet received the assent of the Governor till date.

Therefore, the Court noted that as per the counter affidavit of TTAADC, there exists no Rules prescribing method of Appointment, Promotion, Conduct and Discipline in the TTAADC, Civil Services.

It was further observed by the Court that it has not been disclosed by the TTAADC what posts have been created in the said organisation and what pay scale is to be paid to such posts.

“It is not disputed that Part-time Workers/Casual Workers/ paid vouchers had been appointed initially without giving adequate publicity by way of public advertisement, without following a prescribed process of selection, and without following of rule of reservation. All such appointment have to be construed as illegal backdoor appointments only,” the Court said.

The Court further said that the said workers are drawing pay and allowances from the public exchequer as per Article 275 of the Constitution of India and Section 7 of the Schedule VI to the Constitution of India, which cannot be permitted.

The Court observed as follows:

“We fail to understand, how in the absence of existence of sanctioned posts with approved scale of pay and allowances, the TTAADC could regularize services of above referred persons.”

The Court noted that the TTAADC is an instrumentality of the State and is governed by the Constitution and laws of the country which require transparency in the process of recruitment for posts (Article 14) and adherence to rule of reservation (Article 16) too.

“TTAADC cannot give a go-bye to the above Principles of law and regularize services in posts which are possibly not even sanctioned, and make payment out of the public funds for persons holding the said posts after regularization of their services,” it added.

Thus, the Court directed TTAADC that, pending further orders, it is restrained from paying salaries to the private respondents in both the Writ Petitions.

The matter is listed again on September 1.

Case Title: Gobinda Manik Jamatia & 6 Ors. v. Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council & 17 Ors.

Case No.: W(C)(PIL) No. 05 of 2026

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