Madurai Bench of Madras High Court today dismissed a petition by a government higher secondary school teacher seeking to quash his transfer order allegedly punitive in nature and pulled him up for not joining duty for six months, affecting the students.
Justice S Nagamuthu condemned S Jeyasekaran for not reporting for duty after he was transferred on April 22, 2013.
"This means the petitioner has not been discharging his duty for the past six months," he observed and ordered initiation of disciplinary action against the teacher.
Had the petitioner, as a teacher, been conscious of his duty towards the student community, he would have gone to the transferred place and joined there. But his action showed that he had utter disregard for the welfare of the students.
"Such a person does not deserve the discretionary relief of this court under Article 226 of the Constitution (Power of High Courts to issue certain writs)," the judge said.
The petitioner, a drawing teacher, was transferred to Mangalam in Virudhunagar District from a school in Tirunelveli district after an inquiry by District Collector found he was creating communal tension by instigating students of his community to speak indecently about the headmaster and two other staff.
Contending that the transfer was punitive in nature and not due to administrative reason, counsel for the petitioner said the teacher was not given any opportunity to explain his position and transferred without finding out the truth.
In its counter, the government submitted that the transfer was ordered in the larger interest of the society and hence cannot be treated as a punitive measure.
Dismissing the petition, the judge observed that it was well-known that the transfer is an incident of service and no government employee can demand that he be allowed to work in a particular place for ever.
"In this case, I hold that the transfer has been made only on administrative grounds, having regard to the larger interest of the public," he ruled.
He ordered the educational authorities to initiate disciplinary proceedings against the petitioner for his failure to discharge his function as a teacher for the past six months unauthorisedly.
