Patna High Court
The Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti (Nvs) vs Mithilesh Kumar on 9 January, 2023
Author: P. B. Bajanthri
Bench: P. B. Bajanthri, Arun Kumar Jha
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA
Civil Writ Jurisdiction Case No.1247 of 2022
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1. The Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti (NVS) through the Commissioner, Navo-
daya Vidyalaya Samiti, Department of School Education and Literacy, Min-
istry of Education, Government of India, B- 15, Institutional Area, Sector -
62, Noida, District - Gautam Budh Nagar - 201309 (UP).
2. The Deputy Commissioner, Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti, Department of
School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Education, Government of India,
regional Office, Karpuri Thakur Sadan, Kendriya Karyalay Parisar, Block -
A and B, 5th Floor, Ashiyana Digha Road, Patna - 800025 (Bihar).
3. The Principal, Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Nava Nagar, District - Buxar -
802129 (Bihar).
... ... Petitioner/s
Versus
Mithilesh Kumar Son of Sri Arjun Paswan, Librarian, Jawahar Navodaya
Vidyalaya, Nava Nagar, Buxar, Resident of Village/Post - Kachhubi, P.S. -
Lakhnaur, District - Madhubani - 847109 (Bihar).
... ... Respondent/s
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Appearance :
For the Petitioner/s : Mr. Siddhartha Prasad Advocate
For the Respondent/s : Mr. Anshuman Singh Advocate
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CORAM: HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE P. B. BAJANTHRI
and
HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE ARUN KUMAR JHA
ORAL JUDGMENT
(Per: HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE P. B. BAJANTHRI)
Date : 09-01-2023
Service of notice to respondent is completed. Matter
is taken up for final disposal.
Pursuant to previous orders, the State Government has
filed their counter affidavit.
Para 9 and 11 of the counter affidavit read as under:-
"9. That in matters of
panchayat/Niyojit teachers, the role of the
State government is confined to the extent
of providing grant in aid to the Panchayati
Patna High Court CWJC No.1247 of 2022 dt.09-01-2023
2/5
Raj Institutions/local bodies for payment of
salary to such teachers and provides infras-
tructural support to such institutions.
11. That thus it is submitted that
panchayat teachers/niyojit teachers do not
come under the state government."
Core issue involved in the present lis is whether re-
spondent's spouse who is staff of the Zila Parishad could be
treated as staff of the State government or not?
Para 5 of the notice-Transfer Guidelines 2018 dated
02.04.2018reads as under:-
"5. Transfer on priority (spouse ground): NVS, through provisions of its transfer policy and guidelines extends due priority in transfer for unification of spouse. However, in order to facilitate unifi- cation of NVS spouse for promoting better living and working atmosphere within or- ganisation, the transfer on grounds of spouse unification may be governed in fol- lowing order of priority:
(i) NVS Spouse (to be given top priority for seeking transfer where both the employees are NVS employee). It will also cover the case of those spouse whose wife/husband has died while in service.
(ii) Central Govt. Spouse (to be given priority after NVS Spouse where one employee is in NVS while the other is in Central Govt).
(iii) State Govt. Spouse (to be given priority after NVS and Central Govt.
spouse where one employee is in NVS while the other is in State Govt). (underline sup- plied)
(iv) All spouses having served a full tenure (10 years/ 05 years as applicable to their cadre or 10 year if one member is Patna High Court CWJC No.1247 of 2022 dt.09-01-2023 3/5 of 10 year tenure and other member is if 05 year tenure) under unified status may be treated as deemed vacant and are liable to be displaced in order to maximise opportu- nity for other employees to serve there. However, due care may be taken to keep the spouse unified, if displaced, in any other JNV subject to availability of vacancy. In case of displacement of State / Central Govt Spouse, care will be taken to post the dis- placed employee within state boundary sub- ject to availability of vacancy.
(v) Employee posted on a station outside the State boundary (of spouse) may not be protected from displacement claim- ing spouse ground.
(vi) Employee opting transfer, on spouse ground, to JNV outside state bound- ary will not be allowed transfer on spouse ground. However, they can claim such sta- tion as a normal transfer (plain area) with- out availing any priority.
(vii) Certificate of spouse: Cer-
tificate of working spouse must be issued by the competent authority within one month prior to the date of filing of online applica- tion form. The certificate must clearly men- tion whether the organisation is purely a Central / State Govt. / Autonomous / Pri- vate Organisation and whether the em- ployee concerned is a permanent / contrac- tual employee.
(viii) The Principal shall act as the authority to examine the validity/legiti- macy of the certificates of priority and to approve/reject such certificate along with the request of transfer claimed on such ba- sis."
Sub Para 3 of Para 5 of aforementioned guidelines is required to be taken into consideration. Undisputedly respon-
dents' spouse is working with the concerned Zila Parishad as Patna High Court CWJC No.1247 of 2022 dt.09-01-2023 4/5 Panchayat Teacher. Such Panchayat Teacher would fall under the definition of State government employee or not? In the light of Para 9 and 11 of the counter affidavit of the State read with the fact that there is no master and servant relationship between the State government and spouse of the respondent who is work-
ing as Panchayat Teacher.
Perusal of various provisions of the Bihar Panchayati Raj Act, it is evident that it is a separate entity in other words it is a local body. The State government role is only to fund the Zila Parishad. The internal functions of the Zila Parishad is left to the Zila Parishad except to the extent of funding and supervi-
sion of certain issued of the Zila Parishad, is vested with the State government. Therefore, the Central Administrative Tri-
bunal has committed error in extending relief sought by the re-
spondent herein insofar as transfer of respondent with reference to his spouse who is working as a Panchayat Teacher. The Cen-
tral Administrative Tribunal has failed to appreciate whether Panchayat Teacher has a nexus or a master and servant relation-
ship with the State government or not?
Perusal of Bihar Panchayati Raj Act and its provision it is crystal clear that staff of the Gram Panchayat and other lo-
cal bodies have no nexus with the State government except State Patna High Court CWJC No.1247 of 2022 dt.09-01-2023 5/5 government providing funds and overall supervision in respect of financial and other deputed officials to the Zila Parishad/Gram Panchayat etc. Therefore the order of the Central Administrative Tribunal dated 21.10.2021 passed in Original Application No. 050/00338/2021 (MA/050/00432/2021) stands set aside while affirming the order of transfer of the respondent.
The petitioners are at liberty to take fresh decision insofar as transfer and posting of respondent, if it is warranted at this junc-
ture.
(P. B. Bajanthri, J) ( Arun Kumar Jha, J) shoaib/-
AFR/NAFR CAV DATE Uploading Date 12.01.2023. Transmission Date