Chandana Ray Sarkar vs State Of West Bengal & Ors

Raja Basu Chowdhury, J

Affidavit of service filed in Court is taken on record.

The present writ petition has been filed, inter alia, praying for a direction upon the school authorities to issue "No Objection Certificate" for the purpose of processing the transfer application of the petitioner on distance ground and to forward such application to the District Inspector of Schools (S.E.) Cooch Behar.

The petitioner was appointed as an Assistant Teacher at Gosairhat High School, Cooch Behar on 28th October, 2013. The approval of such appointment has been granted by the District Inspector of Schools (S.E.) Cooch Behar, vide memo dated 24th January, 2014.

The petitioner seeks for transfer, as according to her, the school where the petitioner is imparting education is about 79 kms., away from her present matrimonial home and that she has a three-year old daughter.

Having heard the learned advocates appearing for the respective parties and noting from the submissions of the parties that the online portal "Utsashree" has remained suspended, I am of the view that without going into the issue as to whether the petitioner's case warrants for transfer, the petitioner's representation for being considered for transfer in terms of West Bengal School Service Commission (General Transfer, Transfer on Special Grounds and Reallocation) Rules, 2015 (hereinafter referred to as the "said Rules) cannot be denied simply because the portal has remained suspended. Since, the said Rules confer a right to the petitioner to be considered for transfer, the petitioner's application for transfer cannot be kept pending.

Further since, the online portal has been suspended, there cannot be any embargo on the part of the concerned respondents to consider the petitioner's application for transfer in offline mode in terms of the said Rules. If the petitioner is found eligible to forward the application to the District Inspector of Schools (SE,) who shall thereupon forwarded the same to the Secretary West Bengal Central School Service Commission for them to take appropriate steps.

The entire process in this regard must be completed within a period of twelve weeks from the date of communication of this order.

With the above observations and directions, the writ petition stands disposed of.

Urgent photostat certified copy of this order, if applied for, be given to the parties upon compliance with the requisite formalities.