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Hyderabad High Court not enthused by joint teacher cadre

He said the Presidential assent would attain finality only when it was proved to be in accordance with law and the Constitution.

Hyderabad: Repeated attempts by the government of undivided AP to evolve a unified cad-re of teachers met with little success in the High Court.

The court ruled that cadres under a local authority cannot form part of the local cadres of departments of the government.

Two petitions have been filed questioning the insertion of Para 2A in the Presidential Order 1975, by which non-gazetted teachers working in mandal and zilla parishad schools were integrated with non-gazetted teachers in state schools.

A contempt petition is pending before the court seeking to punish the authorities for not implementing the orders granted in the case of M. Kesavulu in 2003 in which the court had directed the government not to implement the unified service rules.

Senior counsel S. Ramachandra Rao, who is fighting the case for the State Go-vernment Teachers Association, hoped that the amendment to the Presidential Order would not stand judicial scrutiny in view of Article 371(D).

He said that teaching posts in local bodies, be it mandal or zilla Parishads, are not under the control of state government. He said that as per Article 371D(2), the President has no power to organise teaching posts in local bodies into local cadres.

The power of the President is confined to directing, requiring or instructing the state government to organise classes of civil posts in civil service or under the government into different local cadres, Mr Rao said.

He said the Presidential assent would attain finality only when it was proved to be in accordance with law and the Constitution. The amendment passed last month infringes on the autonomy of the panchayat raj bodies to run educational institutions, he said.

He said the amendment was made with effect from 1998. If it comes into force, the governments would have to maintain two categories of teachers appointed before and after 1998, which is not permissible.

Mr Sarotham Red-dy, president of Pan-chayat Raj Teachers Association, said once the President issues the order for integration of services no one has the right to question it.

( Source : Deccan Chronicle. )
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