Patna: Taking notice of the alleged anomalies persisting in the state govt’s new transfer policy for schoolteachers issued on October 7 this year and sequel guidelines released on November 4, the Patna high court on Tuesday directed the state’s education department to file a reply within six weeks.
A single bench of Justice Prabhat Kumar Singh, while hearing a writ petition of one Niraj Kumar Pandey and 12 other schoolteachers of Aurangabad, also stayed the implementation of November 4 transfer guidelines of the state govt.
However, the stay would be applicable to these 13 writ petitioners only. The November 4 guidelines of the state’s education department had fixed deadline of November 22 for schoolteachers to submit their respective options for transfer—10 subdivisions for male teachers and 10 village panchayats for woman teachers. According to the guidelines, in case of failure in filing of options within the deadline, the state govt would decide the place of transfer.
Senior counsel Lalit Kishore and advocate Mrityunjay Kumar, while arguing the case of petitioners, alleged that mandatory provisions of submitting options out of 10 subdivisions or panchayats are arbitrary and contradictory to the laws made for appointing schoolteachers in Bihar, for whom such transfer policies have been framed.
The new transfer policy also overlooks the merit marks obtained by the candidates competing for the post of schoolteachers, Lalit added.
The matter would be heard again on January 21.