Orissa HC Quashes Govt Policy Allowing Legislators to Recommend Teacher Transfer Cases

The Orissa High Court on Thursday struck down a controversial Odisha Government order that allowed MPs and MLAs to recommend transfers of up to 15 government school teachers each during a special window from May 15 to June 15, terming the policy “illegal political interference” in academic administration. Justice Dixit Krishna Sripad, in a strongly worded judgment, declared that teacher transfers are purely administrative matters governed by service rules and cannot be influenced by elected representatives’ discretionary recommendations.

The court was hearing petitions filed by two Kalahandi teachers, Ranjan Kumar Tripathy and Fakir Mohananda, who challenged their own transfer orders issued under the May 2025 circular of the School and Mass Education Department. The petitioners argued that allowing legislators to nominate teachers for transfer violated statutory service norms and opened the door to favoritism. The High Court had stayed the government order in July and has now permanently quashed it, calling the policy “irrational, unjustifiable, and violative of administrative fairness.”

Justice Sripad observed that vesting elected representatives with authority over teacher postings creates a risk of political considerations overriding educational priorities. “Such instructions cannot be accepted within the lawful governance of public education,” the bench held, emphasizing that transfers must strictly follow uniform rules applied by designated administrative authorities and district-level committees, without external political pressure.

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In a student-friendly directive, the court ordered that teachers who were transferred under the scrapped policy need not immediately return to their original schools; they may complete the current academic session to avoid mid-year disruption to classes. Only after the session ends will they be reinstated to their pre-transfer postings.

The judgment is being hailed as a landmark safeguard for the independence of school administration in Odisha and is likely to deter similar attempts by state governments elsewhere to grant legislators quasi-administrative powers over teachers and government staff.

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