Court No. IN THE HIGH COURT AT CALCUTTA Constitutional Writ Jurisdiction

30.01.2023 Appellate Side (Item No. 6)

W.P.A. 10682 of 2022 (AB/SC)

Prapti Chakraborty VS The State of West Bengal Mr. Biswarup Biswas Mr. Gora Chand Samanta …. For the petitioner Mr. Sourav Mitra Mr. Suman Dey …. For respondent Nos. 5 & 6 Ms. Koyeli Bhattacharyya …. For WBBSE Mr. Biswabrata Basu Mallick Mr. Sayak Chakraborty … for the State Mr. Sarwar Jahan Mr. Shahzad Noor Thander …. For respondent No. 11 Affidavit of service filed in Court today, is taken on record.

The petitioner claims to be an Assistant Teacher at Churaman P.C. High School (H.S.), Uttar Dinajpur for the subject “Sanskrit”. Through Utsashree portal she applied for transfer thrice as would be evident from the General Transfer application status and the allied documents at pages 51 to 55 to the writ petition. The first transfer application was submitted by the petitioner on August 12, 2021 before the head of the institution which was sent back to the petitioner on September 2, 2021 on the ground of “Single Teacher”. The second application was submitted by the petitioner on September 24, 2021 which was rejected by the head of the institution on the ground “Out of 10%”. The third application the fate of which is impugned in the instant writ petition was submitted by the petitioner on February 10, 2022 and the head of the institution rejected the same on the ground “out of

10%”.

Mr. Biswarup Biswas, learned advocate appearing for the writ petitioner relying upon the gazette notification dated September 8, 2022 submitted that in terms of sub-Rule 2 to Rule 6 of the West Bengal School Service Commission (General Transfer, Transfer on Special Grounds and Re- allocation Rule), 2015 (for short, the Transfer Rule, 2015) provided the duties and obligations of the School Managing Committee of the relevant School. According to him, if the School Managing Committee after verifying the service records and details of the applicant considered the number of subject Teachers and roll strength, if resultant vacancy of the school in particular subject become zero for not commensurate with roll strength, the School Managing Committee shall not forward the application. The School Managing Committee was also consider that the total applications from the School should not be more than 10% of total Teachers strength of the School.

Mr. Biswas submitted that in the event, after recording its satisfaction the School Managing Committee sent the application of the applicant to the jurisdictional District Inspector of Schools, then he shall carry out his obligation in terms of the statutory provisions prescribed under the said Rules and so on by the other authorities. For the purpose of time schedule, Mr. Biswas had relied upon another gazette notification dated December 22, 2021 at page 42 to the writ petition. He submitted that, such time stipulation was never followed. Relying upon the gazette notification dated December 22, 2021 at page 44 to the writ petition, learned counsel for the petitioner submitted that, all the Rules and Guidelines for transfer of teachers were relaxed in favour of the teachers gradually with the passage of time so that the teachers can opt for transfer in course of their employment day by day. Relying upon another gazette notification dated January 3, 2022 at page 47 to the writ petition Mr. Biswas submitted that, even this “Single Teacher” stipulation was also relaxed under certain circumstances mentioned therein. Relying upon another gazette notification dated January 3, 2022 at page 49 to the writ petition the learned counsel for the petitioner submitted that, even the said 10% concept was also relaxed under certain given circumstances mentioned in the said gazette notification.

Learned counsel then submitted that, the rejection of the case of transfer of the petitioner on third occasion which is impugned in this writ petition on the ground “out of 10%” as shown by the head of the instituti