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Overload of court cases - UP secondary edu dept to set up own legal section
PRAYAGRAJ Facing a huge burden of court cases, The Uttar Pradesh secondary education department is readying to set up its own legal section. A formal proposal in
PRAYAGRAJ Facing a huge burden of court cases, The Uttar Pradesh secondary education department is readying to set up its own legal section. A formal proposal in this regard has already been sent to the government for approval, say department officials.
The plan is to have the legal section at the education directorate both in Lucknow and Prayagraj to easily deal with cases at Allahabad High Court as well as in the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court, they add.
Officials said that the move has been formally proposed following specific instructions from chief minister Yogi Adityanath during a review meeting of the department held in the state capital on June 17, 2019.
“A proposal for setting up a dedicated legal section has been sent to the state government for its formal go ahead,” confirmed additional director (secondary education) Mahendra Dev.
According to department’s own records, a whopping 19,027 cases of the department are currently pending in the Allahabad High Court and at its Lucknow bench. The sheer load of the court cases means that most senior officials and department staff remain busy pursuing them month after month at the cost of other important work. It is owing to this reason that the CM asked for a legal section to be set up in the department, officials claimed.
As a result, director (secondary education) Vinay Kumar Pandey sought a formal proposal in this regard from additional director (secondary education), additional director (government schools) and deputy director (secondary education) on July 30, 2019. It is in response to this that the proposal has been sent to the state government for approval.
Among all state government departments, the secondary and basic educations departments lead the list of departments with most pending court cases. The UP Basic Education department itself has 17,417 pending court cases and here too, owing to lack of any dedicated legal section/cell, most officials stay busy dealing with them and appearing in different courts for hearings all year round.
