Hyderabad: Telangana high court has directed the state govt to complete certificate verification of more than 700 junior lecturers working in govt Intermediate colleges within two months and take a decision on regularisation of their services, benefits, including annual increments.Justice K Sharath issued the directions while disposing of a batch of petitions filed by the aggrieved lecturers.The petitioners contended that although their services were regularised under GO Nos. 19, 20 and 21 issued by the state govt on May 1, 2023, the authorities had failed to grant annual increments and declare their probation.Petitioners’ counsel argued that once their services were regularised as junior lecturers, withholding annual increments due under the service rules was unlawful. “Not declaring probation is severely affecting pay and allowances, promotions, service seniority and other employment benefits,” said the counsel.The counsel further referred to the Telangana State and Subordinate Service Rules, arguing that service benefits should follow automatically after regularisation and that officials had stopped increments without any valid legal basis. It was also argued that treating employees performing identical duties differently amounted to discrimination and was contrary to the spirit of the Constitution.Taking serious note of the delay, Justice Sharath observed that the lecturers had completed probation three years ago and questioned why the issue was still pending, asking how much more time the govt required to finalise the matter.In response, the govt counsel submitted that nearly 70% of the candidates had produced certificates from outside the state. “The certificates pertaining to their probation are from Sikkim, Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, and officials are visiting each institution to verify the records where they were provisionally regularised,” the counsel said.The govt informed the court that the verification exercise was progressing expeditiously and sought time to complete the process at the earliest. Taking note of the submissions, the court disposed of the petitions with the above directions.
