Submit view on teachers’ transfer policy: HC to state

Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court on Tuesday directed the state to submit their view with regards to the teachers’ transfer policy in connection with a case of rejection of a teacher’s

transfer application. It was observed that while exceptional situations for transfer cannot be ignored, every transfer order must be fact specific.

A case was filed in Calcutta High Court by an aggrieved teacher whose application for transfer was rejected on the ground of being a single subject teacher. Justice Biswajit Basu observed that in many schools there are no mathematics, english or science teachers. He also referred to a school in Jalpaiguri which he had inspected during his time at Jalpaiguri Circuit Bench. “I visited one school in Jalpaiguri. In one day, 12 teachers were absent. They were shown to be on duty as they had gone a few kilometres away to collect Madhyamik answer sheets,” Justice Basu said while highlighting the situation. “The suspension of online application of transfer has deprived many teachers of their rights for applying for transfer under transfer policy rule of 2015. The state is responsible and not the litigants. There are teachers who are in dire need of transfer. If they are transferred to schools nearby there will be an improvement in the service provided by them as well,” advocate Shuvro Prokash Lahiri representing the petitioners stated.

The School Education department had extended the suspension of Utsashree transfer portal till June 30, 2024. They had earlier suspended the portal till December 31, 2023. During the hearing, Lahiri submitted that in many cases during the recruitment, schools were not shown as per the rank of the candidates. The Advocate General was asked to be present on Tuesday by the Court. Since he was not, the hearing was scheduled to next take place on April 9.

In another case, Justice Basu had observed that the state Education department should withdraw approval from schools with no students and instead send teachers to schools which have children. To maintain the student-teacher ratio in recognised non-government aided and sponsored secondary schools in the state, the state Education department had made several changes in the transfer policy. As per the new notification, no one can apply for a transfer from those schools which have fewer number of teachers than required. The department on February 10 had published these guidelines under, “Policy for rationalisation of teachers working in recognised non-government aided/sponsored secondary schools in the state.”