Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court on Tuesday stayed Government Orders (GO) 5 and 9 issued by the school education department to transfer teachers working in government schools.
Some teachers had challenged the Telangana Teachers (Regulation of Transfers) Rules, 2023 issued in GO Ms No. 5 dated January 25, which were amended in GO Ms No. 9 of February 2, as arbitrary, illegal, discriminatory, void and without jurisdiction apart from contrary to Article 309 of the Constitution.
They said the rules are contrary to Sections 78 and 99 of the AP Education Act, 1982 and requested the court to declare Rule 6 (II) (a) (c) of te Telangana Teachers (Regulation of Transfers) Rules, issued in the GOs is violating Articles 14, 16 and 21. They requested the court to restrain the government from effecting the transfer of under the rules.
The division bench comprising Chief Justice Ujjal Bhuyan and Justice N. Tukaramji heard the pleas and issued interim stay orders restraining the government from going ahead with the transfers. The bench directed the government to file its contention and posted the matter to March 15.
The petitioners said that the government was not providing special points to office-bearers of teachers’ association as well as under the spouse category
Their other contention was that as per the Education Act, the rules would not come into force unless they were approved by the State Legislature.
The petitioners said the services of teachers from local bodies schools, under the panchayat raj jurisdiction, could not be treated as one with government school teachers under the education department. Neither department was empowered to frame ‘special rules’ to transfer teachers.
They said the rules were not approved by the TS Public Service Commission as required under Article 320 of the Constitution, nor were they published in the Official Gazette. They said the government in amending the rules had followed the procedure for issuing GOs in the name of the Governor under Article 162.
