Justice Anjani Kumar Sharan addressed several petitions, highlighting that there is no significant difference between the duties performed by contract and guest teachers. Consequently, he directed the state government to resolve within a month the issue of granting guest teachers five marks for each year of service, up to a maximum of 25 marks, similar to the benefit already provided to contract teachers.
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Patna, Bihar: The Patna High Court recently directed the state government in a case involving the recruitment of school teachers by the Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC), resulting in a significant decision favoring guest teachers.
The Court, presided over by Justice Anjani Kumar Sharan, granted a stay on a recruitment advertisement dated February 7, which provided grace marks to contract teachers for their service but excluded guest teachers from the same benefit.
Justice Anjani Kumar Sharan addressed several petitions, highlighting that there is no significant difference between the duties performed by contract and guest teachers. Consequently, he directed the state government to resolve within a month the issue of granting guest teachers five marks for each year of service, up to a maximum of 25 marks, similar to the benefit already provided to contract teachers.
The Court noted that while the Backward and Extremely Backward Classes Welfare Department awarded these grace marks to contract teachers, guest teachers were excluded.
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“This is a matter of state policy concerning the granting of grace marks to teachers on a contractual basis but not to guest teachers, which constitutes a violation of Article 14 of the Constitution of India,” the court stated.
The issue arose from the recruitment advertisement, which allotted 5 marks per year of service, capping at 25 marks, as a preference for candidates engaged as contract teachers by the Backward Class and Extreme Backward Class Welfare Department. Guest teachers, who performed similar duties but were engaged by the State Education Department, were not offered the same marks.
Justice Sharan, in his May 29 judgment, emphasized the equivalence of duties between guest and contract teachers, noting that both categories teach students and engage in various administrative duties, including election and assessment tasks. He ruled that there was no substantive difference in their roles that justified the disparity in treatment.
Thus, the Court ordered the state authorities to rectify this inequality by extending the same grace marks to guest teachers, aligning their benefits with those of contract teachers. The state government was directed to make a final decision on this matter within one month, and the contentious advertisement was put on hold until then.
The ruling stands to benefit over 4,000 guest teachers in Bihar, allowing them to compete on an equal footing with contract teachers in the BPSC recruitment exam by receiving the same preferential marks. This decision comes after the guest teachers lost their positions on April 1, 2024, following a directive from the education department, which was based on a January 2018 order to discontinue their services due to the hiring of a large number of permanent teachers.
Previously, guest teachers were compensated at a rate of Rs 1,000 per working day, capped at Rs 25,000 per month. However, despite their involvement in various administrative tasks such as election duties and examination evaluations, the BPSC had neglected to provide guest teachers with the same preference marks as their contract counterparts in its TRE 3.0 advertisement.
Moreover, the court noted that both sittings of TRE 3.0, held on March 15, were cancelled by the BPSC due to allegations of question paper leaks. The BPSC is expected to announce a new examination date following the elections.
Advocates Nityanand Mishra and Alok Abhinav represented the petitioners, while Advocate Ajay Kumar represented the State of Bihar and Advocate Parul Prasad represented the BPSC.
