CUTTACK: The Odisha government’s recent policy decision that allows MLAs and MPs to recommend transfers of teachers of elementary and secondary schools within their constituencies has come under judicial scrutiny.
On Tuesday, the Orissa High Court issued notice to the state government after Ranjan Kumar Tripathy and Fakir Mahananda, both teachers posted under the district education officer (DEO), Kalahandi, filed two separate petitions challenging the policy and the transfer orders issued to them pursuant to it.
The policy notified via a letter issued on May 13 by Girish Chandra Singh, joint secretary in the School and Mass Education department, had permitted legislators to recommend up to 15 transfer cases between May 15 and June 15. The recommendations were to be reviewed by the district-level transfer committee (DLTC) and applied only to intra-district transfers, with a bar on moving teachers from rural to urban areas.
Appearing for the petitioners, advocate Sukant Kumar Dalai argued that the policy lacks legal authority and justification. Dalai said the transfer of the petitioners had been made under this policy and was therefore arbitrary and unsustainable.
While admitting the petition, Justice Dixit Krishna Shripad observed, “A case is made out for issuance of notice and grant of interim relief as well. Issue emergent notice.” The court stayed the transfers of the two petitioners until the next hearing and issued notices to the state government, seeking response. The matter will be heard again after four weeks.
The government, in its May 13 letter, had clarified that the one-time measure should not violate rationalisation principles and that priority must be given to cases with genuine and urgent need. In parliamentary constituencies covering multiple districts, recommendations were to be submitted to a nodal collector with intimation to the counterpart in the adjacent district.
The court’s intervention assumes significance as the policy decision was allegedly being seen as an unusual instance of political representatives playing a direct role in administrative transfers, even as the state government maintained it was a limited, one-time exercise.