The High Court on Monday struck down Rule 4 of the Telangana government empowering District Educational Officers (DEOs) of the erstwhile 10 districts to transfer teachers in local body schools.
The judgment was delivered by a division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan and Justice J. Uma Devi, disposing of a series of writ petitions filed by government school teachers a few weeks ago. The posts of erstwhile DEOs do not exist as the government appointed new DEOs to 31 newly created districts, the order said. Rule 4 notified in Government Order dated June 6 was unconstitutional, the bench said in the verdict. However, the bench said there was no merit in all other contentions of the teachers based on which they challenged the constitutionality of GO 16 relating to guidelines of their transfers.
The two judges ruled that the scope of interference by the courts in transfer of government employees was ‘limited’. Transfer of an employee from one place to another was an incident of service necessary in public interest. It helped maintain efficiency in public administration. No government employee had a legal right to be posted forever at any one particular place or at a place of his or her choice, the order said, citing verdicts of the Supreme Court.
The bench said there was no merit in the petitioners’ argument that the government had violated the ‘staus quo’ order issued by the Hyderabad High Court in framing GO 16.