Can’t force teachers to do non-academic work: Delhi HC

Justice C Hari Shankar of Delhi HC set aside the notifications issued by the municipal authorities directing the teachers to conduct non-educational activities’.

The Delhi high court has said the civic authorities can take assistance from its teachers for non-academic work but cannot force them to do so by imposing punitive measures.

An organisation comprising teachers of Delhi municipal corporation schools filed a plea in Delhi HC alleging that teachers were given duties not linked to education. (HT File / Representative Photo)

The court termed as “impermissible” and “unconscionable” the decision of schools assigning teachers duties and tasks that are “not remotely connected to imparting of education”.

Justice C Hari Shankar set aside the notifications issued by the municipal authorities directing the teachers to conduct non-educational activities’.

He stated that civic bodies cannot ask principals or teachers to perform any duty outside the Right to Education (RTE) Act.

The court was hearing a plea filed by the Akhil Delhi Prathmik Shishak Sangh, an organisation comprising teachers of municipal corporation schools, which had alleged that teachers were given duties not linked to education, such as opening bank accounts of children and linking them with Aadhaar.

The plea said the RTE rules do not permit allocation of any duty to teachers other than those specified under the Act.

“No doubt, the local authority could justifiably request for assistance from the principal and teachers of schools, so that the carrying out of the said exercise is facilitated... That would not, however, justify issuance of any of the municipal corporations of directives to the teachers and the principals to mandatorily carry out the said exercise, or even to assist or participate therein under pain of punitive consequences….,” the court said.

Stating that such requirements and instructions fly in the face of the RTE Act and the RTE Rules, the judge said, “Education is a serious affair, and teachers are justifiably regarded as discharging divine duties, nourishing and nurturing the minds of tomorrow. Single-minded devotion and blind pursuit of excellence, must guide every educator.