Calcutta HC reserves verdict on plea challenging teachers' drafting for census work

Kolkata, Aug 19 (AHN) The hearing on a petition challenging the decision to appoint teachers from state-run schools in West Bengal for the recently started Census work was concluded at a single-judge bench of the Calcutta High Court on Wednesday.

However, the single-judge bench of Justice Krishna Rao had kept the judgement reserved.

The hearing concluded on Wednesday with an observation from Justice Rao made an observation on the rationale behind the assignment of teachers the twin tasks of teaching and Census work simultaneously.

According to him, the main task of the teachers is teaching and they should be used in Census work or to teach at a time.

Incidentally, on Wednesday, the West Bengal School Education Department had requested the State Home Department to ensure that the interests of students are protected even though teachers from state-run schools are deployed for Census work.

However, this communication had sparked controversy.

Different teachers' organisations have claimed that if teachers from schools not having enough teachers are deployed in Census work, the academic processes in those schools are bound to be affected.

On Wednesday, the state government also told the Calcutta High Court that it was withdrawing the August 3 notification, which asked the teachers in state-run schools to do Census work after school hours.

The state government's new notification said that teachers can do census work only as 'on duty'.

The Calcutta High Court had said that "D.El.Ed (Diploma in Elementary Education)" Trainees should be exempted from the Census work.

Earlier also, the Calcutta High Court had raised questions about the mass recruitment of teachers for the Census work.

Earlier, the court had said that the state government could have recruited a few teachers instead of recruiting many teachers at a time.

The Calcutta High Court also questioned whether the Union government consulted the state government before taking the decision to appoint school teachers for Census work.

The court also suggested that the Census authorities change the allotted time for teachers to conduct the Census work.