High Court gift to Jharkhand school teachers after 33 years

Representational picture

The Jharkhand High Court Wednesday directed the state government to regularise 226 teaching and non-teaching staff of different project girl schools in the state and reimburse them their back wages with all the allowances. Justice S N Pathak, who had reserved the order after hearing both the sides, pronounced the judgement asking the government to regularise and pay them their dues Wednesday, coincidentally the Teachers Day.

According to a writ filed by the aggrieved teachers, a total of 226 teaching and non-teaching staff of different project girl schools were working without salary since 1985. When the then Bihar government did not listen to their demands, they approached the Patna High Court, pleading regularisation and reimbursement of salary. Jharkhand separated from Bihar and became a separate state in 2000. In a scheme of the then Bihar government, a total of 650 staff had been appointed in four phases between 1981 and 1985. The government regularised the 1981/82 batch while leaving out the rest, the writ said. In 1989, the Patna High Court asked the government to regularise them.

The Bihar government, however, challenged the order in the Supreme Court. The apex court upheld the Patna High Court order and directed the state government to inquire into every appointment and regularise it. After the creation of Jharkhand, the state government set up a committee in 2006, which recommended regularisation of services of only about 10 per cent of the staff after inquiry and in 2011, the 10 per cent staff was regularized. The committee left out the 90 per cent of the teachers saying that they did not have any teaching training and some of the teachers had not completed graduation. They then challenged the committee's recommendation in 2016 in the Jharkhand High Court. The writ urged that the state government make a policy to accommodate teachers without training.

The high court in July, 2017 directed the state government to formulate a policy in this regard. The state government formulated a policy in April, 2018, but as per the petitioners, the policy was not in full compliance with the Supreme Court order. The petitioners once again challenged the policy in the Jharkhand High Court and after hearing the matter, the court passed the order Wednesday in which it allowed the writ and passed the order to the state government to regularise the services of all the 226 teaching and non-teaching staff within two months and pay their back wages and allowances accordingly.

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