Teachers' transfer case: High Court reprimands litigants

KOLKATA: The Calcutta High Court on Monday reprimanded the litigants in the teacher transfer case. Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay observed that if the teachers have right to pay and other benefits, the students also have the right to proper education.

A teacher had filed a case in the high court seeking transfer from a primary school at Jhalda in Purulia. The case was being heard by Justice Gangopadhyay on Monday, when he raised the question on the number of students in the school. Apart from this, like Justice Biswajit Basu, Justice Gangopadhyay also demanded to know the student-teacher ratio in schools across the state.

Justice Gangopadhyay also stated that the state will first inform of the ratio and only then can the transfers be ordered. Until then, the High Court will not issue any order in the transfer case. The date of further hearing will be fixed only after the High Court receives the affidavit.

Justice Biswajit Basu on December 14 observed that the state government should consider the issue of most of the teachers looking to transfer to schools in Kolkata or nearby.

Justice Basu expressed concern after seeing the report on the student-teacher ratio. He also reportedly called the advocate general of the state and sought the opinion of the state government of framing a policy with regards to this issue.

Recently, a government lawyer submitted a report on the teacher-student ratio of the secondary and higher secondary schools in Kolkata during the hearing of the teacher transfer case. Referring to the report, Justice Basu stated that there are 115 schools in Kolkata, whereas there are more than 500 teachers. According to a news agency, the number of students per school is less than 50.