Edu Deptt ‘no’ to practice of stopping teachers’ salary after HC stand

Additional chief secretary (education) Deepak Kumar Singh earlier this month wrote to all the district education officers (DEOs) and district programme officers (DPOs) to stop the practice of holding back teachers’ salaries without any concrete reason.

PATNA: Faced with mounting court cases and strong comments from the Patna high court, the education department has now embarked on an exercise to not only reduce the cases but cut down the prospect of further addition to litigations, which mostly relate to salary stoppage, appointment, promotion, transfer or delay in payment of retirement dues.

The Patna high court (HT Photo)

Additional chief secretary (education) Deepak Kumar Singh earlier this month wrote to all the district education officers (DEOs) and district programme officers (DPOs) to stop the practice of holding back teachers’ salaries without any concrete reason. He also referred to a similar letter issued in June 2015. Soon after the Nitish government came to power in 2005, the then principal secretary (education) late MM Jha also issued a letter asking officials to refrain from stopping the salary of teachers.

“Such instances have come to light when the salary of teachers was stopped without any reason and the matter lands in the court. If any appointment is illegal or any other serious irregularity is detected, mere stopping of salary will not suffice. It should lead to suspension and departmental inquiry. There should not be stopping of salary without suspension or departmental inquiry,” he wrote, citing an order of the Patna high court.

A teacher working since April 2018 had moved to the HC after his salary was withheld “without any reason”. Citing a Supreme Court order, the bench of Justice Sanjeev Prakash observed that “even if the appointment was irregular, the state has to pay salary for work done by the employee”. The judge also directed the finance secretary to stop the salary of the education department’s top officials till further order. Last year also, the court had taken exception to the practice of stopping salary while hearing another case.

Education minister Vijay Kumar Choudhary had also said last month at a review meeting with officials that teachers should not be made to run around offices at the cost of teaching in classrooms for their genuine work; rather the officials should proactively reach out to them in schools across Bihar to address their issues on the spot and reduce the unnecessarily growing burden of court cases. Actions were also taken on some officials who were found to be intentionally trying to harass teachers, while others were warned against such practice.

In view of the National Lok Adalat scheduled in Patna next month, the education department has written to all the districts to review the cases and submit an updated status in the prescribed format so that they could be put before it for resolution.

The additional chief secretary said that so far the number of cases related to the education department, as per the Lok Adalat figures, stands at 694 writs and 1175 contempt petitions. The actual number of court cases the department continues to grapple with is, however, much higher.

Lok Adalat, which has been given statutory status under the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987, is a forum where the disputes/cases pending in the court of law or at the pre-litigation stage are settled/compromised amicably. The award made by the Lok Adalat is deemed to be the decree of a civil court and is final and binding on all parties. No appeal lies before any court against its award.

The education department has been proactive in resolving vexed issues concerning schools which often land up in the courts. The courts had also in the past made adverse comments against the department.

AG takes a serious view

On July 4, advocate general Lalit Kishore wrote to all the law officers to go to the court fully prepared and be personally present to assist the court in matters related to them or ask the assistant counsels, if they are required to appear, to go with full preparation.

This happened after a strong observation by the bench of Justice Sanjeev Prakash on June 20 that “the government counsels are not appearing and send their juniors, who take time and seek adjournments, as they are neither prepared with the case nor give any assistance to the court”. “Despite court’s insistence to argue, they seek an adjournment,” the judge added.

The advocate general took a serious view of this. “All the law officers are requested to ensure effective and proper assistance to the court to ensure that the unpleasant situation does not arise in future,” he wrote to all the law officers dealing with cases related to various departments.