IN THE HIGH COURT AT CALCUTTA Constitutional Writ Jurisdiction (Appellate Side)

W.P.A. No.2478 of 2025 Haridas Makhal Vs.

The State of West Bengal & Others Before: The Hon’ble Justice Saugata Bhattacharyya For the Petitioner : Mr. Sudip Ghosh Chowdhury, Adv.

For the State : Mr. Abhishek Banerjee, Adv.

Mr. Somnath Mukhopadhyay, Adv.

For W.B.C.S.S.C : Ms. Supriya Dubey, Adv.

For W.B.B.S.E : Ms. Koyeli Bhattacharyya, Adv.

Mr. Bibek Dutta, Adv.

Ms. Keya Panja, Adv.

Heard On : 20.02.2025, 18.03.2025 & 10.04.2025 Judgment On : 10.04.2025 Saugata Bhattacharyya, J.:

1. An affidavit taking exception to the report filed on behalf of District Inspector of Schools (S.E.), Purba Bardhaman, which is affirmed on 21^st March, 2025, is placed before this Court and same is taken on record.

2. Petitioner made application for transfer on 15^th July, 2022 on the ground of distance in between the present school of the petitioner and his place of residence. Such application was made on Utsashree portal and same was forwarded by the authority of Lohai Sammilani Vidyaniketan, Purba Burdwan (hereinafter referred to as ‘said school’) on 26^th August, 2022 to the District Inspector of Schools (S.E.), Purba Bardhaman being respondent no.4 for taking further steps.

3. Grievance of the petitioner is in spite of receipt of transfer application by respondent no.4 on 26th August, 2022 through portal, respondent no.4 has refused to forward the transfer application of the petitioner to the Chairman, West Bengal Central School Service Commission being respondent no.3 for taking final decision on the same. Respondent no.4 in his turn has sent back the transfer application of the petitioner to the said school authority and the said school authority has sent back the same to the petitioner on 9th September, 2022.

4. Learned advocate representing the petitioner submits that petitioner has been wrongly excluded from the zone of consideration for transfer on the specious plea that he was not coming within the zone of consideration on applying embargo relating to 10 per cent of teaching strength of the said school as envisaged under Rule 5(6) of West Bengal School Service Commission (General Transfer, Transfer on Special Grounds and Reallocation) Rules, 2015 (hereinafter referred to as ‘said Rules of 2015’).

5. It is specifically submitted on behalf of the petitioner that while considering the transfer application of the petitioner respondent no.4 is required to count Headmaster of the said school as one of the teachers and if same would have been done, in that event total number of teaching strength of the said school would have been counted as 21 (twenty one) instead of 20 (twenty). If transfer application of the petitioner was considered based on 21 (twenty one) teaching staff working in the said school, in that event petitioner would have come within the zone of consideration since as per Rule 5(6) of said Rules of 2015 against 21 (twenty one) teaching staff of the said school 3 (three) would have been permitted to take transfer applying rules relating to 10 per cent of total teaching strength.

6. On the contrary, learned advocate representing the State respondents has opposed this writ petition on the ground that Headmaster/ Headmistress is a single cadre post in a school. Therefore, while calculating total number of teaching strength working in a school Headmaster/ Headmistress should be excluded. Reliance is also placed on Rule 2(m) of said Rules of 2015 wherein definition of “Teacher’ is provided. It is also contended in reference to said Rule 2(m) that an Assistant Headmaster/ Assistant Headmistress can be transferred from respective post to a post of Assistant Teacher whereas Headmaster/ Headmistress cannot be transferred from the post of Headmaster/ Headmistress to the post of Assistant Teacher. Therefore, Headmaster/ Headmistress should be excluded while counting total number of teachers working in the school.

7. Having considered the respective submissions made on behalf of