HC shows the door to over 4,000 surplus guest faculty

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 13

No less than 4,073 guest teachers, shown the door earlier also, will have to go. A Division Bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court today closed the chapter of adhocism by not permitting guest teachers to continue further. The Bench also asserted connivance of guest teachers and the state was well established.

The Bench asserted guest teachers were appointed since 2005-06, but their services were not dispensed with even after appointment of regular teachers. “Even those guest teachers, whose services were dispensed with, were re-engaged even after two to four months of their removal”.

The Bench asserted: “It is established that the state circumvented the order passed by this court either by not making the regular appointments and allowing the guest teachers to continue or despite making large number of appointments, adjusted the guest teachers against other vacancies. All the vacancies in any other cadre are never filled up…. The connivance of the appellants and the state as even observed by this court earlier is well established beyond doubt. This court cannot be a party to their design.”

The ruling on six appeals came less than a year after a Single Judge held that the appellants were backdoor entrants. The appellants had initially filed writ petitions before the Single Judge challenging notices asking them to show cause why their services as guest teachers should not be dispensed with as no longer required.

The primary contention raised by their counsel before Justice Rajesh Bindal and Justice Harinder Singh Sidhu was that the guest teachers could not be termed as surplus, keeping in view the requirement of teachers as assessed by the state. “The moment regular selections are made their services may be dispensed with”.

The counsel claimed guest teachers, in the category of trained graduate teachers, were working in rural schools, where regular teachers were not willing to go. The Bench observed the case had a chequered history. Directions by the High Court to carryout time-bound regular appointments were not complied with by the state and the guest teachers were continuing either on the basis of their request or the state’s plea that interest of the students might suffer.

The Bench added the teachers were still being treated with adhocism at all levels, though they were playing important role in society. “Instead of concentrating on the studies of the children, they remain more involved in court cases, which are avoidable, in case the state takes timely action for settling their grievances. Not only the teachers, even department also remains busy in court cases, instead of using that time for more productive work which could result in improving the system”.