HC quashes Odisha govt order empowering MPs/MLAs to transfer school teachers

The Orissa High Court on Thursday quashed the government policy that empowered MPs and MLAs to recommend deserving cases of transfer of teachers in their constituencies, observing that it has the potential of creating a “seamless nexus between political parties/candidates and the community of teachers”.

The government policy decision adopted on May last stated that MLAs and MPs can make recommendation of transfer to the district collector for disposal of the same by the District Level Transfer Committee (DLTC), an official letter sent to the Director of Secondary Education and the Director of Elementary Education, Odisha, Bhubaneswar.

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This (policy) would not augur well to the system. One needs no research to visualize the fruits of poisonous trees that would grow on the soil of such a nexus. It is teachers, more particularly those who teach up to the level of HSC/X Standard, who mould the younger generation as citizenry in the making.

As a matter of necessity, teachers have to maintain safe distance from political parties & elected representatives, the Single Bench of Justice Dixit Krishna Shripad ruled on Thursday while quashing the government order.

For the conduct of elections and their preparatory works, services of teachers too are requisitioned. Impugned letter of the kind, which provides for MPs/MLAs recommending transfer of teachers, has the potential of creating a seamless nexus between the political parties/ candidates and the community of teachers, the order stated.

The High Court direction came in the wake of a batch of petitions filed by a set of teachers, challenging the order.

The letter dated 13 May 2025, which enables the jurisdictional MPs & MLAs to recommend teachers for transfer, is without authority of law and otherwise also unsustainable, the petitioners’ counsels argued.

All public servants, regardless of transfer guidelines, are liable to be transferred during their service on administrative grounds. All teachers, being public servants, cannot seek exemption from transfer, the counsels representing the Government argued.

The impugned order is in the nature of Executive Instructions to enable MPs & MLAs to recommend for transfer of teachers, since they know the local requirement; even otherwise, their recommendation is subject to other norms laid down in the very same letter, ultimate decision being taken by Transfer Committee, they further submitted.

All teachers in Government Schools are civil servants, but all civil servants are not teachers. Broadly speaking, the nature & scope of their jobs differ.

Without civil servants, arguably, governance could not run. Without teachers, the new generation cannot be rightly brought up. It is the teachers who shape civilization by inculcating values for social organization & development. To wipe out a nation from the world map, no atom bomb is necessary; if the standard of teaching is diminished, that would happen before long, Justice Shripad further observed in the order.