Calcutta High Court: The Division Bench of Subrata Talukdar and Krishna Rao, JJ. has allowed an appeal filed against the order passed by the Single Judge wherein he had refused to interfere with the order of transfer issued against the appellant by the Chairman, North 24 Parganas District Primary School Council.
The appellant was initially appointed as Assistant Teacher of Primary School on 25-12-1998. On 07-10-2021 the appellant was transferred to Beraberi F.P. Primary/Junior Basic School under Habra Circle aggrieved by which appellant had preferred a Writ Application and the Single Judge had passed an order of stay and directed the DPSC North 24 Parganas to file report specifying the reasons of such transfer and accordingly, the District Inspector of School had filed a report before the Single Judge and after considering the report, the order of transfer was set aside.
After the order passed by the Single Judge, the Chairman issued an order of transfer of the appellant on 24-12-2021 by transferring the appellant to Subhasnagar F.P. School under the same circle. Being aggrieved with the order of transfer, the appellant had preferred a writ application and the Single Judge had dismissed the writ petitioner which is impugned in the instant appeal.
Counsel appearing on behalf of the appellant by referring to the West Bengal Primary Education (Transfer of Teacher including Head Teacher) Rule, 2002 submitted that the District Primary School Council may either on its own motion or on an application from a teacher can transfer an approved teacher within its jurisdiction from one Primary School to another Primary School.
The Court noted that in the present case the Chairman has invoked the authority of the Council by transferring the appellant from one school to another School, which is not permissible under law. Rule 4 specifically authorized the council to transfer an approved teacher and in the instant case admittedly the Chairman had issued the order of transfer and North 24 Parganas District Primary School Council never took any decision for transfer of the appellant. The Court thus held that the impugned transfer order can’t sustain in the eyes of law.
The Court while allowing the appeal was of the opinion that the Chairman, North 24 Parganas District Primary School Council did not have the authority or jurisdiction to issue the impugned transfer order to the appellant. The appellant had already joined the transferred post without prejudice to her right and contentions thus, she was directed the respondent council to allow the appellant to resume her duties at Barasat Mahatma Gandhi G.S.F.P. School No.1 under Barasat West Circle where she was discharging her duties before.
[Dipika Bala Biswas v. State of West Bengal, MAT 3 of 2022, decided on 05-08-2022]
Advocates who appeared in this case :
Joytosh Majumdar and Shamim-ul-Bari, Advocates, for the Appellant;
Jahar Datta and Milon Kumar Maity, Advocates, for the State;
Arabinda Chatterjee, Bhaskar Prasad Vaisya and Pinaki Bhattacharyya, Advocates, for the DPSC North 24 Parganas.
*Suchita Shukla, Editorial Assistant has reported this brief.