SIR duty shouldn't cause stress to government school teachers: Delhi High Court to ECI

The High Court also questioned the language used in ECI's letter to teachers threatening disciplinary and legal action.

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday directed the Election Commission of India (ECI) to ensure that no government school teacher is assigned duty pertaining to the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the national capital in a manner that places an excessive burden on them or causes undue stress, affecting their ability to teach students.

The court called for sensitivity towards teachers, observing that additional work after working six to eight hours may cause them stress. (Representative photo)

The court also disapproved of the language used in the ECI’s letter dated July 14, which stated that teachers who refused to perform election-related duties or remained absent without authorisation would face disciplinary and legal action.

A bench comprising chief justice DK Upadhyaya and justice Tejas Karia issued the direction after taking note of the ECI’s affidavit, in which it stated that teachers were being assigned election-related duties only after school hours, on non-teaching days or on holidays, for about four to five hours.

The court, during the hearing, said that the whole tenor of the ECI’s letter was threatening. “Why was it required for you to write unauthorised leave and absence, if you’re deploying them only after school hours? Where was the occasion for you to write this? The kind of language you are writing in the letters. The whole tenor of the letter is threatening,” the bench said to ECI’s lawyer.

The court called for sensitivity towards teachers, observing that additional work after working six to eight hours may cause them stress. The bench said that the mandate under Section 27 of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, which bars the deployment of teachers for non-educational work except for decennial population census, disaster relief, and election-related duties, could not be ignored while assigning such duties.

It said, “Accordingly, we direct that while assigning work related to the electoral roll, the aforesaid aspect be kept in mind by the ECI and the officers, and they shall take all appropriate steps so that the election-related work does not cause so much stress on the teachers that may lead to an unbearable burden.”

The court issued the direction while hearing a petition filed by advocates Rajesh Gogna and Ashok Aggarwal challenging ECI’s July 14 order of requisitioning the service of teachers in government schools for SIR duty in Ambedkar Nagar.

The petition said that in several schools, the entire regular faculty was withdrawn during teaching hours, classes were left to guest teachers or to teachers of unrelated subjects, which was hampering the fundamental Right To Education of the children studying in those schools.

The matter would be heard next on August 20.