Smt. Anju Barthwal and Others vs State of Uttarakhand and Others

Sudhanshu Dhulia, J.—Heard learned Counsel for the Petitioners as well as learned State counsel.

In this bunch of writ petitions, the grievance of the Petitioners is the same, hence all these writ petitions are disposed of together.

The Petitioners are teachers in government higher secondary school working in various districts in Uttarakhand. It must be noted here that the appointment of higher secondary teacher is a regional level appointment and a teacher can be transferred anywhere in the region-region being Kumaon or Garhwal as these are the two educational regions in the State of Uttarakhand.

Under a national scheme of secondary education programme, a number of junior high schools were upgraded to higher secondary school in the State in the year 2011. Consequently posts were created, which had to be filled in these schools. As an immediate measure therefore, teachers already teaching in hill areas of Uttarakhand were transferred/adjusted to these newly upgraded schools. The Petitioners are such teachers who have been transferred from the hill areas of higher secondary school to the newly upgraded higher school. This was done on various dates by the order of an authority known as Additional Director of Education of the respective regions i.e. Kumaon and Garhwal. In many such cases consequent to the said order, the Petitioners have joined and have been teaching for some time in these newly upgraded schools. Consequently however vide order dated 16th June, 2011, the Secretary, Education, Government of Uttarakhand has cancelled the earlier order of transfer/adjustment of these Petitioners on the ground that in such newly upgraded schools the adjustment from eligible teachers of higher secondary schools will be made from within the districts, for example in case schools have been upgraded in district Dehradun then those vacancies of teachers in such upgraded schools shall be filled by transfer of teachers who are already working in higher secondary schools in Dehradun only. The second ground was that in many cases, transfer/adjustment of the teachers have been made of the teachers who have put in less than five years of service in remote areas and since they have not put in five years of service in remote areas, therefore, they could not be transferred to these newly upgraded schools.

The Petitioners on the other hand contend that the appointment of a higher secondary teacher is not a district level appointment, but it is a regional level appointment and in case a teacher has been transferred from one district to another district but in the same region, there is no anomaly in the same. Regarding the Petitioners have put in less than five years of service, they state that they have put in more than three years'' service at the earlier posting which is sufficient and not in violation of the transfer policy.

Be that as it may, one thing which is very clear from the impugned orders as well as the rival contentions of the parties before this Court is that once the Petitioners had been transferred to their newly adjusted place, in case the order was liable to be cancelled, the facts of each case should have been studied and in case there is any violation of any Rules or orders, only in such case the transfer was liable to be set aside. Instead of this, by a blanket order all such adjustments/transfers have been set aside.

As such all these writ petitions are being disposed of with a direction to the Secretary, Education, Government of Uttarakhand to look into the matter either by himself/herself or by deputing it to a very senior Officer in the Department of Education, who would see facts of each case and thereafter pass appropriate orders therein. In case their case is eligible for transfer/adjustment, the same shall be made. It is made clear that this order would not mean that the Court has directed the authority to give any personal hearing to each Petitioners. All that has to be done is that the Secretary, Education or the authority deputed by him must apply his mind to each case before passing the order. It is also made clear that since the education session has already started, the exercise as directed by this Court must be completed as expeditiously as possible, but definitely within a period of three weeks from the date a certified copy of this order is produced before him. In spite of the repeated assertion of the Petitioners, this Court is not inclined to pass any interim order purely for the reason that it may create confusion in the mind of the concerned authority, and education in classes may suffer. However, it is made clear that the stipulated period of three weeks must be strictly adhered to.

With the above observations, the writ petitions are disposed of.