GTA in court against state teacher order

TT, Calcutta, March 20: The GTA today filed a case at the Calcutta High Court to challenge the legality of the state government's move to appoint 46 para-teachers in 46 schools across Darjeeling district for teaching the Lepcha language.

The GTA, in its petition, claimed that since the issue of appointment of teachers in Darjeeling primary schools was a GTA subject according to the GTA Act, 2011, the state had no authority to make such a move.

"The case is likely to come up for hearing next week," Ayanava Raha, the lawyer appearing for the hill body, said this evening.

The petition claimed that in 2013, the state government had decided to appoint 46 para-teachers in 46 Darjeeling schools for teaching Lepcha language. Accordingly, on June 3, 2014, the government issued a notification asking the district magistrate of Darjeeling to start the process of appointing teachers, the petition stated.

The petition also said that soon after the notification was issued, Roshan Giri, the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha secretary and the GTA executive member in-charge of school education, wrote a letter to the DM and requested him not to proceed with the process.

"But the DM, on March 10 this year, started the process of selection of teachers. That prompted my client to move a case in the Calcutta High Court," Raha said.

The petitioner sought an order of the court quashing the decision taken by the state government and allowing the GTA to proceed with the appointments.

Giri said the state government's move to recruit para-teachers in primary schools in the hills was a violation of both the GTA agreement and the GTA Act since school education is a transferred subject. "This is another instance of the state government's interference in the subject matter of the GTA by violating both the GTA agreement and the GTA Act. We will oppose this tooth and nail," he said.