The Kerala Administrative Tribunal (KAT) has stayed the general transfers of higher secondary schoolteachers in the State after it found the Directorate of General Education to have violated its earlier instruction to provide due weightage to outstation service while considering transfers to home or nearby districts.
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A tribunal bench comprising judicial member P.V. Asha and administrative member P.K. Kesavan issued an interim order on Wednesday on the basis of a plea by a group of 23 ‘outstation’ teachers who flagged violation of the prescribed norms as well as the tribunal’s orders by providing them nil weightage in the final transfer list published on February 16.
Marked zero
The tribunal directed the State government to furnish a revised transfer list by considering the outstation service of the teachers against their opted station within 10 days. The petitioners submitted before the KAT that the outstation service of one of them, for instance, was marked as ‘zero’, despite having worked for 3,449 days in Malappuram district. The teacher hails from Thiruvananthapuram district. Similarly, the outstation service of the other teachers has not been reckoned for transfers to opted stations in other districts.
Contempt proceedings
They also contended that teachers, who have less outstation service, have been ranked above them. As a result, they have been denied transfers to their opted schools. The government pleader submitted that the majority of the teachers did not object to the transfers and that most of them had taken charge on the basis of the transfers orders.
The tribunal will consider contempt proceedings against the respondents in connection with the issue on Friday.