2026:CGHC:7678 Digitally VISHAKHA signed by AFR BEOHAR VISHAKHA BEOHAR HIGH COURT OF CHHATTISGARH AT BILASPUR WPS No. 3154 of 2023

1 - Babita Mahakhud W/o Atul Das Aged About 43 Years Posted As Teacher (L.B.) Govt. Middle School Karchuva Block Bemetara, District :

Bemetara, Chhattisgarh ... Petitioner(s)

versus

1 - State Of Chhattisgarh Through The Secretary School Education Department Ministry, Mahanadi Bhawan, Po And Ps Rakhi, Nawa Raipur, District : Raipur, Chhattisgarh 2 - Director, Directorate Of Public Instruction 1st Floor Block-3, Indrawati Bhawan Naya Raipur, District : Raipur, Chhattisgarh 3 - Divisional Joint Director, Education Division Durg, District : Durg, Chhattisgarh

4 - District Education Officer District Bemetara Chhattisgarh.

... Respondents (Cause-title taken from the Case Information System)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- For Petitioner :- Mr. Abhyuday Tripathi, Advocate on behalf of Mr.

Mateen Siddiqui, Advocate For State :- Mr. Ashutosh Shukla, P.L.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SB- Hon'ble Shri Justice Amitendra Kishore Prasad

Order On Board

11.02.2026

1. The present petition has been preferred against the impugned order dated 21.04.2023 issued by the Joint Director, Education Division, Durg, whereby the services of the petitioner have been dismissed on the ground that the caste certificate of the petitioner was not duly issued by the competent authority of the State of Chhattisgarh.

2. The petitioner in the present writ petition has prayed for following reliefs:-

“10.1 Hon'ble Court may kindly be pleased to set- aside/ quash the order Dated 21.04.2023 (Annexure P/1) issued by the Joint Director, Education Division Durg.

10.2 Hon'ble Court may kindly be pleased to direct the respondent State to consider the candidature of the petitioner on the post of Teacher (LB) and to grant all the other consequential benefits.

10.3 grant any other writ/ writs, order/ orders, relief/ reliefs in favour of the petitioner, which the Hon'ble Court deemed fit & just in the facts and circumstances of the case, including awarding of the costs to the petitioner.”

3. Facts of the case are that the petitioner was born and brought up at Kalahandi, Bhawanipatna in the State of Odisha and belongs to “Gouda” caste, which falls under the Other Backward Class (OBC) category in the State of Odisha, and a valid caste certificate to that effect was issued by the Tahsildar, Kalahandi. Thereafter, the petitioner got married to Mr. Atul Das and settled in the State of Chhattisgarh, pursuant to which a domicile certificate was duly issued in her favour by the Tahsildar, Pithora, District Mahasamund. The petitioner possesses the requisite educational qualifications, having passed Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in English Literature in the year 2013 and Bachelor of Education (B.Ed.) in the year 2017 from Pt. Ravishankar Shukla University, Raipur, and also cleared the Chhattisgarh Teacher Eligibility Test (CG TET). An advertisement dated 09.03.2019 was issued by the Directorate of Public Education, Chhattisgarh for appointment to the post of Teacher (English), pursuant to which the petitioner, being fully eligible, applied and successfully qualified the examination held on 25.08.2019. The petitioner appeared for document verification on 20.01.2022, which she successfully cleared, and was thereafter appointed under the Unreserved (UR) category as Teacher (English), E-Cadre, vide appointment order dated 15.02.2022 and posted at Government Middle School, Karchuva, Block Bemetara, District Bemetara, where she joined and continuously discharged her duties for about 14 months. Subsequently, on the basis of a complaint, the respondent authorities re-verified the documents and issued a show-cause notice dated 24.01.2023 alleging that the caste certificate submitted by the petitioner was not valid for appointment under the State of Chhattisgarh