Plea in High Court on vacancy of 26,031 teachers in Delhi schools

A contempt plea, seeking action against AAP government and municipal corporations for not complying with a court order to fill vacancies of over 26,000 teachers in their schools, was filed in the Delhi high court on Friday.

The petition said there are “as many as 26,031 (this does not include 9,000 posts created by the Delhi government last year) vacant posts of teachers” in the schools run by the Delhi government and the three corporations.

The plea, filed by NGO Social Jurist through its counsel Ashok Agarwal, said there was “deliberate and intentional disobedience” of the orders of a division bench of the high court to ensure zero vacancy at the commencement of each academic year in schools here.

According to the government, the 1,011 government schools currently have a total vacancy of around 15,000 teachers which severely affects the teacher-student ratio. Observing that despite a division bench direction of December 20, 2001, so many vacancies still existed, the petition said this was “resulting in depriving 25,05,691 students studying in 1977 schools of their fundamental right to receive quality education”.

The matter is likely to be heard on October 17. In 2001, on the NGO’s plea against the Delhi Subordinate Services Selection Board, Delhi government and the municipal corporation, the high court had set a schedule for appointment of teachers to ensure that all posts are filled by beginning of July every year.