The court held that the order of transfer was illegal and quashed it, directing the competent authority to take a decision afresh in strict compliance with the law. The court also directed the appellant to revert back to her original school within two weeks and retained the benefits received at the transferred post.

JUDGMENT :

Harish Tandon, J.

1. The present appeal is directed against a judgment and order dated 31st March, 2022 passed by the Single Bench in WPA 2133 of 2022 whereby and where under the appellant was directed not to discharge duties and functions as Assistant Headmistress of Kamala Vidyamandir High School for Girls (HS) nor shall sign any papers and documents including the attendance register in such capacity in the said school. The order impugned runs thus:-

“The fundamental question involved in this matter is how one Assistant Headmistress can be transferred from one school to another school as Assistant Headmistress.

The school does not require any Assistant Headmistress as has been shown before me by the learned advocate for the petitioners and it was supported by the Managing Committee of the Kamala Vidyamandir High School for Girls (H.S) that the school has now 355 students. An Assistant Headmistress can be appointed if the students strength of the school is above 750 and not below that. Therefore, the school need not have any Assistant Headmistress and the Central School Service Commission is directed to post the Respondent No.8 as an assistant teacher in any other school by giving her pay protection which is to be looked into by the Commissioner of School Education as she was once selected as Assistant Headmistress of a school. The Respondent no.8 being the said Assistant Headmistress from today shall not be the Assistant Headmistress of Kamala Vidyamandir High School for Girls (H.S) and she shall not sign any papers or documents including attendance register as the Assistant Headmistress of the school or as the Teacher-in-Charge of the school from today.

With this observation and direction this writ application is allowed.”

2. It appears from the impugned order that apart from the restrain having created upon the appellant in discharging duties as Assistant Headmistress or the Teacher-in-Charge, the West Bengal Central School Service Commission was also directed to post the appellant as Assistant Teacher in any other school with pay protection. Therefore, the pivotal issue involved in the instant appeal is whether the writ court can pass an order demoting the appellant to the post inferior to the post which she held without following and/or keeping adherence to the statutory Rules or end provisions of law applicable thereto.

3. Indubitably, the appellant was appointed as Assistant Teacher in Garden Reach Nutbehari Das Girls High School on November 3, 1997 which was duly approved by the DI of Schools (S.E) on 4th February, 1998.

4. Subsequently, the post of the Assistant Headmistress was duly sanctioned vide Memo No. 4G-633/80 dated 6th September, 2010 by the then Director of School Education, West Bengal. Pursuant to the sanction of the said post, the Selection Committee was constituted and the process of selection was initiated for filling up the said sanction post of Assistant Headmistress. The appellant offered her candidature for such post and passed all the tier of examination conducted by the Selection Committee and the D.I. of Schools (S.E.), Kolkata approved the panel and appointed the appellant in such post. Initially, the said appointment was for a period of two years which was confirmed on 11th September, 2013. Subsequently, the appellant was transferred from the said school to Sumatinagar Sarat Kumari High School (HS) on administrative grounds. Since the said school where such transfer was made is situated at a distant place i.e., Sagar, the appellant challenged the said order by filing a writ petition being WP 10053 (W) of 2019 before this Court. The primary ground for challenge was that the order of transfer depicted that the transfer is made at transferee school as Assistant Teacher though she held the post of the Assistant Headmistress which is impermissible. The further challenge was made that the transferee school is at the distant place and she has to commute more than 215 km for her residence being a p