High Court of Judicature at Calcutta
SADHAN KUMAR GUPTA
Kakali Bandyopadhyay
Versus
State of West Bengal
W.P. No. 28490 of 2008
Decided On : 16-02-2009
(1) This writ petition has been filed by the petitioner praying for directing the respondent No. 3 to approve the panel for filling up the post of Assistant-Headmistress in H.C.S.C. Srikrishna Balika Vidyapith (hereinafter referred to as the said school).
(2) Case of the petitioner is that she was appointed in the said school as an Assistant-Teacher on 28.5.1993. The respondent No.3, District Inspector of Schools (Nadia), duly approved such appointment. On 12.12.2000 the respondent No.3 accorded necessary permission in favour of the petitioner to act as an Assistant-Teacher in Language Group in addition to her duty as a teacher of Physical Education, fn the said school. After the petitioner joined the said school, she had obtained Post Graduate Degree in English with the permission of the competent authority in the year 2005.
(3) In the meantime, the post of Assistant-Headmistress fell vacant in the said school and the respondent No.3 accorded prior permission for filling up the said post. The Managing Committee of the said school notified such vacancy on 27.8.2007 and asked the eligible candidates amongst the approved Assistant-Teachers of the said school for submitting application for the said post. Accordingly, the petitioner also offered herself as a candidate for the said post. The interview was taken by the school authority on 14.9.2007. It may be mentioned here that although the petitioner had requisite qualifications and experience, she was initially denied by the school authority to appear before the interview board. As such, the petitioner had to file another writ petition when the learned Single Judge of this Court directed the respondents to take into account the educational qualification and not the scale of pay in considering the candidature of the petitioner. Pursuant to such direction, the petitioner appeared in the said interview. The petitioner was selected by the Members of the Selection Committee and such panel was duly approved by the Managing Committee and it was sent to the respondent No.4 the Additional District Inspector of Schools, Ranaghat Sub-Division for approval. Though the panel was prepared and submitted in the month of September, 2007, the District Inspector of Schools, Nadia, did not accord approval to the said panel compelling the petitioner to file the present writ petition.
(4) The case was contested by the respondent-State and it preferred to contest the writ petition on merit without filing any affidavit-in-opposition. The respondent No.5, the School Managing Committee, in fact, supported the case of the petitioner.
(5) It appears that the petitioner has claimed that she has got requisite qualifications and experience for being selected for the post of Assistant-Headmistress of the school, but the District Inspector of Schools, Nadia, illegally refused to give approval to the panel in question in favour of the petitioner. In this respect, the learned Advocate for the petitioner submitted that in order to be selected for the post of Assistant-Headmistress of a particular school, a person must possess Honours/Masters Degree with five years teaching experience. According to the learned Advocate for the petitioner his client has got all such requisite qualifications for being selected to the post. In this respect, he has drawn my attention to the guideline issued by the Government of West Bengal, School Education Department dated 10th July, 2002. This guideline has been mentioned by the learned Single Judge of this Court in the earlier W. P. No.19757(W) of 2007. In the said writ petition, the learned Single Judge clearly passed direction to the effect:-"After considering the submissions made by the learned Advocate for the petitioner and upon perusing the writ petition, I am of the opinion that from the letter dated 1 st September, 2007 it does not appear that she is not an approved teacher. On the contrary it appears that she is an Assistant Teacher of the concerned school. Whethe
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