The Orissa high court on Thursday quashed a state government order that authorised MLAs and MPs to recommend transfers of government school teachers, ruling that political intervention cannot determine administrative decisions in the education sector.
The school and mass education department, in May this year, had permitted legislators to recommend up to 15 transfer cases between May 15 and June 15. The recommendations were to be reviewed by the district-level transfer committee and applied only to intra-district transfers, with a bar on moving teachers from rural to urban areas.
Following this, two school teachers from Kalahandi — Ranjan Kumar Tripathy and Fakir Mahananda — had moved the high court challenging the policy and the transfer orders issued to them on the grounds that transfer decisions are part of administrative service rules and not subject to political discretion. The HC had stayed the government order in July.
In its judgement on Thursday, the single judge bench of justice Dixit Krishna Sripad observed that the government’s letter amounted to undue political interference in academic administration, noting that transfer procedures must be carried out exclusively by authorities appointed under education service norms. The court called the policy “irrational, unjustifiable, and violative of administrative fairness” and held that teacher postings cannot be influenced by external recommendations from MPs or MLAs.
The judge said that vesting elected representatives with discretionary authority over teacher postings creates a situation where political considerations may affect school administration.
{{/usCountry}}The judge said that vesting elected representatives with discretionary authority over teacher postings creates a situation where political considerations may affect school administration.
{{/usCountry}}The court noted that such instructions ‘cannot be accepted’ within lawful governance of public education, as transfer processes must remain confined to administrative bodies responsible for applying uniform rules. The court further said that teacher transfers must follow established statutory procedures applicable to all teaching staff and should not be based on individual recommendations made by public representatives.
The high court also said all affected teachers must return to their original postings only after the academic year concludes, in order to prevent disruptions in ongoing classes.