The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court has granted major relief to the teachers who have been working on contract for years at Kasturba Gandhi Girls’ School (KGBV) in Uttar Pradesh. The court has slammed the state government for not creating regular posts by keeping the teachers on long-term contracts and not providing them with the same pay and service facilities as the regular teachers. The court termed this system as bonded labor prohibited under Article 23 of the Constitution.
A single bench of Justice Pankaj Bhatia directed the Uttar Pradesh government to take a decision within four months to sanction and create posts of teachers in KGBV and make their service conditions at par with regular teachers. The court made it clear that this relief would not be limited to the petitioners, but would be applicable to teachers working in all Kasturba Gandhi girls’ schools in the state.
Notice to pay monthly honorarium of 17 thousand
The High Court has directed under an interim arrangement that all KGBV teachers be paid an honorarium of Rs 17 thousand per month from the date of the order till the government takes necessary steps regarding creation of regular posts and conditions of service. The court made a critical comment on the current honorarium paid to teachers, saying it was lower than the remuneration prescribed for semi-skilled workers. Calling it an honorarium in such a situation is a cruel joke. The court said that it is not right to deprive teachers of proper remuneration and service related security despite years of service.
The government has to fix the service conditions of KGBV teachers
Hearing the petitions of Archana Booth and others, the court ordered the government to consider the claims of regularization of petitioners and other teachers in similar situation. In which the decision has to be taken as per the law keeping in mind the educational qualification of the teachers and their service period. The court also said that the government has to fix the service conditions of KGBV teachers and these conditions should be similar to the service conditions of regular teachers up to intermediate level.
Notice to revise from time to time
The High Court has held that teachers should be given service-related security under Section 24(2) of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009. Along with this, the Government has been instructed to revise the emoluments or wages of teachers from time to time, so as to bring it in line with the wages and other emoluments received by the teachers and assistant teachers of government schools in the state.
There will be no excuse for not getting the budget from the Centre.
The Court also made important observations on the financial responsibility between the Central and State Governments. The court clarified that the central government has to bear its share of the cost as per the agreed agreement, but the state government cannot refuse to comply with the order citing disallowance of funds from the centre. The court said that the state government can first pay the teachers and later get its share from the central government on the principle of ‘payment first, recovery later’.
What is Kasturba Gandhi Girls School Scheme?
Kasturba Gandhi Girls School Scheme is a central government initiative which was launched in the year 2004. It aims to provide quality education through residential schools to girls from deprived, backward and marginalized communities.
