Cuttack, April 24 : Orissa High Court has expressed displeasure over the state government changing stands just to raise a dispute before it.

The court expressed the displeasure while adjudicating on a petition, in which the government had challenged the State Administrative Tribunal's order on the issue of according the trained graduate teachers' pay scale to classical (Sanskrit) teachers.

In that particular case, the government had taken the stand before the tribunal that the petitioner was entitled to trained graduate teachers' pay scale on notional basis from the date of his appointment, as he was having Acharya qualification at the time of appointment as classical teacher.

The tribunal had accordingly passed an order on August 14, 2013, directing the authorities to fix the pay of the petitioner in trained graduate teachers' pay scale from the date of his initial appointment as classical teacher on June 25, 1982. But, the government later took a U-turn and challenged the order in the high court.

The division bench of Justice Sanju Panda and Justice S.N. Prasad was unhappy as it found the tribunal had passed an order after taking into consideration the government stand, but it "took totally a reverse ground in assailing the order".

"This court cannot now allow the state government to change stand, basically for the reason that the tribunal had passed the order on appreciation of it," the Judges ruled.

"We are of the considered view that the tribunal has passed a conscious order after taking into consideration the factual aspect as well as the government decision. So, we are not inclined to interfere with the order," the Judges observed in the April 7 order, a copy of which was available today. The case relates to one Sudhansu Sekhar Rout, who was initially engaged as a classical (Sanskrit) teacher having Acharya qualification on June 26, 1982.

He acquired Sikshya Sastri qualification, which is equivalent to BEd degree, on July 30, 1982. While continuing as classical teacher, he was promoted to Junior Subordinate Education Service cadre (trained graduate teacher post) on October 7, 2005, and by virtue of that now, he is continuing as assistant teacher belonging to the Junior Subordinate Education Service cadre.