Telangana State gets HC Nod for Transfer of Govt Teachers

Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court on Wednesday gave the go-ahead to the state government to proceed with transfers of government teachers in pursuance of the Telangana Teachers (Regulation of Transfers) Rules 2023. However, the court made it clear that the said transfers were subject to the final outcome of the petitions before the High Court, which challenged the said rules.

 The division bench, comprising Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice T. Vinod Kumar, vacated the stay orders issued earlier by the High Court in restraining the government to go ahead with transfers of the teachers based on Rules 2023.

By modifying its restraining orders dated February 14 and March 7, the High Court permitted the government to take up transfers of government teachers, including cases of such teachers whose spouses are working in schools run by the state government, local bodies or aided institutions.

However, the court did not give any relief to the office-bearers of teachers unions, which challenged the rules seeking some special points to the office-bearers while effecting transfers.

The interim orders were issued in a batch of petitions filed by government teachers across the state, challenging the decision to transfer based on the Telangana Teachers (regulation of transfers) rules, 2023 made through GO.Ms.No.5 (25-o1-2023). They challenged its constitutional validity as they were not placed before the Legislative Assembly.

Additional advocate general J. Ramchander Rao informed that the rules were framed as under powers conferred under the Telangana Education Act, 1982 under the proviso to Article 309 of the Constitution, which was an inadvertent decision. He informed the court that as per Section 99 of the Telangana Education Act, 1982, the rules had been placed on the floor of the House in August, when the Assembly was in session. This contention was opposed by Chikkudu Prabhakar, counsel for the petitioners in the batch of writ petitions by stating that, though the rules were placed before the House, there was no discussion on the said rules.