Agartala: The Supreme Court on Wednesday deferred the hearing on the Tripura government's appeal to extend jobs of 10,323 school teachers who are serving on ad hoc basis till July 18.

The teachers were previously terminated by the apex court and later engaged on an ad hoc basis. Their ad hoc service tenure ended on Wednesday.

A division bench of Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel and Justice Abdul Nazir said the petition would be heard again on July 18. The teachers can continue in their respective posts till that date, the court said.

The state government filed a special leave petition (SLP) with the apex court seeking to extend service of the ad hoc teachers till 2020. The petition was admitted in the Supreme Court on June 4.

Speaking to this correspondent, law secretary Datamohan Jamatia said the petition was "partially heard" on Wednesday. The apex court also heard a separate interlocutory application of the government to vacate stay order imposed on promotions in government jobs and deferred it for July 18.

Tripura currently has 7.29 lakh students studying in 4,928 schools.

However, there are only 40,658 teachers and the retirement of over 10,000 teachers is likely to affect teaching in schools, education minister Ratan Lal Nath said earlier, announcing the decision to file the petition with the Supreme Court seeking to extend their service.

He added that 12,222 vacant teaching positions were advertised shortly after the incumbent BJP-IPFT government assumed office on March 9. Sufficient candidates were not available, owing to which schools would need service of the terminated teachers on ad hoc basis for another two years, he said.