It comes after several hearings, including one where the Department of Education described one of the teacher's legal arguments as "brazen".

The teacher - who cannot be identified to protect the victim's identity - was initially suspended from teaching, with pay, after a complaint was made to the Department of Education about his past conduct.

The Teachers Registration Board then suspended his registration on the grounds he posed a risk of harm to students, based on an earlier decision under the Registration to Work with Vulnerable People Act.

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This prompted department secretary Tim Bullard to upgrade his suspension to without pay due to the teacher no longer holding the required registration, and not being able to teach.

The teacher appealed this to the Tasmanian Industrial Commission, arguing the suspension of his registration was beyond his control and he was still entitled to salary, relying on a single clause in the teacher's pay agreement.

The commission's deputy president agreed, and directed Mr Bullard to reconsider his decision.

The decision was based on a finding that Mr Bullard could only have considered the facts in front of him at the time of the suspension, and nothing more, and the teacher had been denied "procedural fairness" as a result.

The suspension of his teacher's registration was deemed beyond his control due to his inability to appeal it, thus making Mr Bullard's decision fall foul of the pay agreement. The department had described this as "a brazen position" for the teacher to take due to the seriousness of the allegations against him.

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Mr Bullard appealed the TIC decision to the Supreme Court, which ruled on the matter last week.

The teacher resigned from his position nine months after the suspension without pay.

The department argued that in the time between his suspension and the TIC decision, the teacher had been charged by Tasmania Police and that this information should have been considered as adding strength to the complainant's allegations.

It also argued the teacher's lack of registration meant he was not entitled to pay, and that the TIC did not have the power to make a decision to reinstate the pay.

In his decision, Chief Justice Alan Blow said the TIC does not have the power to make a decision on behalf of the department, and therefore could not consider the new information that the teacher had been charged by police.

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"The commission does not have the power to stand in the shoes of a primary decision-maker and make its own decision in substitution for the decision under review," he said.

It meant that, in effect, Mr Bullard could only consider the facts in front of him at the time of his decision.

"However, as at [the date of suspension without pay] no court or tribunal had made any finding as to the truth or otherwise of the allegations of sexual misconduct, and it was not part of the secretary's role to make any finding as to their truth or falsity or to assess their credibility," Chief Justice Blow said.

The appeal was dismissed, meaning the TIC's decision stood.

It could result in the teacher being fully paid retrospectively for the time he was suspended without pay.

He was jailed for four years last year.

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