Patna High Court: In a writ petition filed by a number of guest teachers to grant them a relaxation of five marks by the Bihar Public Service Commission (‘BPSC’) according to Bihar Municipal Body Secondary and Higher Secondary School Service (Appointment, Promotion, Transfer, Disciplinary Action and Service Conditions) Rules, 2020 (‘the Rules’), and to publish a supplementary result in favour of guest teacher working for five and a half years, Anjani Kumar Sharan, J., held that the merit list by BPSC had already been published and appointments were made accordingly, because of which the petition for publishing supplementary results was rejected. Further, the Court held that the guest teachers and teachers working on a contractual basis were discharging the same duties and hence were entitled to the same relaxation of five marks per year (maximum 25 marks) for the job of school teachers at government schools.
Background:
The petitioners were working in different schools of Bihar as guest teachers and had been discharging their duties to the satisfaction of both the administration and the students. The Education Department, Government of Bihar enacted the Rules, which granted five marks per year preference/weightage to guest teachers. BPSC published an advertisement for the selection of school teachers under different government schools and gave five marks per year (25 maximum) weightage to employed teacher on contract basis in Backward Class and Extreme Backward Class Welfare Department (‘the Department’). However, BPSC refused to give the same preference to guest teachers. Hence, the guest teachers have filed a petition, praying for the respondents to grant the relaxation of five marks for guest teachers and to publish supplementary result in favour of guest teachers who had worked for more than five and a half years.
The petitioners contended they qualified the STET Examination and had appeared for the selection process of school teachers. They argued that the Rules mandates granting five mark weightage to guest teachers. They prayed that the guest teachers should be treated the same as teachers on contract basis and should be granted the same relaxation of five marks by the BPSC.
On the contrary, Respondent 4, the Director (Secondary Education), Education Department, Government of Bihar contended that guest teachers’ services were appointed on temporary basis. The award of grace marks or relaxation was a policy decision within the domain of the State and no such provision had been brought on record by the petitioners. They further argued that the control and management of the schools was done by the respective Departments and the Education Department had no interference in the service of the teachers employed under the Department and the teachers working on contract basis in the school under the Department were two separate class who were being governed by different departments.
Respondent 1 contended that there was no question of violation of Article 14 between the two set of classes as the schools in which the petitioners were working as Guest teachers was completely different from the school under management of the Department. Hence, they prayed for the dismissal of the petition.
Decision and Analysis:
The Court noted that the advertisement published by BPSC and the appointment in the said advertisement had already been concluded, therefore, petitioner’s prayer to direct BPSC to merit list in the advertisement could not be accepted.
The Court observed that “the petitioners were working as Guest Teacher and the award of the grace marks of relaxation is a policy decision with the domain of the State and no such provision/decision has been taken by the State Government to give the benefit of five marks per year maximum to 25 marks to the Guest Teacher. The management of the Backward and Extremely Backward Classes Welfare Department has given the said grace marks to the contractual teachers not to the Guest Teacher”.
The Court held that it was a policy matter of the State to grant grace marks to teachers on a contractual basis but not to Guest Teacher, was a violation of Article 14 of the Constitution. The Court opined that both the contract teachers and the guest teachers were discharging same duties as they were teaching students in schools and there was no difference between the contract teachers and the guest teachers.
Hence, the Court allowed the petition, directed the State Government to take final decision to grant five marks for each year of employment and maximum 25 marks to the guest teacher as given to the contract teachers, within one month and stayed the advertisement published by BPSC.
[Sandeep Kumar Jha v. State of Bihar, 2024 SCC OnLine Pat 1292, decided on 29-05-2024]
Advocates who appeared in this case :
For the Petitioners: Nityanand Mishra, Alok Abhinav, Advocates
For the State: Ajay Kumar, Advocate
Buy Constitution of India HERE
What criteria did the court use to determine the entitlement of guest teachers to the relaxation of marks?