Teachers can be transferred to any school in state: HC

MP  |  20 Jan 2023 | Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court on Friday ordered that the state Education department can transfer teachers to any school in the state keeping in mind the ‘best interest of students’. 

Justice Biswajit Basu ordered this after consulting the Advocate General (AG) of the state. He further observed that if the education department orders a teacher to be transferred, it must be carried out within seven days. If a teacher fails to comply with the order, then the education department can take departmental action against the particular teacher. 

Recently, a teacher had filed a case in Calcutta High Court seeking transfer. The court observed that there was no mathematics teacher in that school. Justice Basu ordered that teachers should be transferred following the administrative transfer guidelines. He also ordered the education department to implement the order soon. 

The Calcutta High Court in December had reprimanded the litigants in the teacher transfer case. Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay had observed that if the teachers have the right to pay and other benefits, the students also have the right to proper education. 

This was in connection to a case seeking transfer filed by a teacher from a primary school at Jhalda in Purulia. Justice Gangopadhyay had also stated that the state will first inform of the ratio and only then can the transfers be ordered. Until then, the High Court will not issue any order in the transfer case. 

The date of further hearing will be fixed only after the High Court receives the affidavit. Even Justice Basu on December 14 had observed that the state government should consider the issue of most of the teachers looking to transfer to schools in Kolkata or nearby. 

Justice Basu had expressed concern after seeing the report on the student-teacher ratio, according to which there are 115 schools in Kolkata with more than 500 teachers. According to a news agency, the number of students per school is less than 50. He also reportedly called the advocate general of the state and sought the opinion of the state government of framing a policy with regards to this issue.

https://www.millenniumpost.in/kolkata/teachers-can-be-transferred-to-any-school-in-state-hc-506006