MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court on Tuesday sought response from the state government on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) that sought exemption for post graduate teachers, handling Classes X to XII, from census duty in southern and central districts.
President of Tamil Nadu Higher Secondary Post Graduate Teachers Association V Manivasagan stated in his petition that teachers handling classes X to XII were allotted census duty, between August 1 and 31, without considering the welfare of the students.
Further, he stated that August was an important phase in an academic year when teachers would be focusing on completing substantial portions.
Instead of using post graduate teachers for census duty, the government could employ non-teaching staff, primary and secondary grade teachers, NGOs, he added.
A bench of justices CV Karthikeyan and R Sakthivel asked the association whether it passed any resolution for filing the PIL petition. Since the association replied in the negative, the bench directed the association to pass a resolution and produce the same before the court.
The bench further sought response from the director of Census Operations in Tamil Nadu and the director of school education. Further directions were issued to the principal secretary of school education department to produce the policy decision made for deploying post graduate teachers for census duty. It also suo motu impleaded the chief educational officers of the districts falling under Madurai Bench’s jurisdiction and sought reports from the collectors and the CEOs regarding the list of teachers engaged in census duty. The case was adjourned to August 20.
