Deptt comes up with contrary ‘facts’ to justify action
Irfan Tramboo
Srinagar, Jan 5: The School Education Department (SED) has made a mockery of the High Court directives in the matter of promotion concerning the In-charge Lecturers of Environment Sciences by withdrawing their placements after they were earlier promoted as per the HC directives following the compliance submitted by the SED in May last year.
The matter, as per the documents available with Excelsior, pertains to around 19 such Lecturers who have obtained their relevant PG degrees in EVS through the distance mode and had already moved the court through two different petitions which were then settled.
A detailed order which was issued in this regard in May last year, after the SED submitted a compliance report to the High Court, has also noted that DSEK has already forwarded a verification report of PG Degree certificates in respect of the petitioners in which it has been stated that their degrees fulfil the conditions laid down in the Government order No 940-Edu of 2017 dated 17-11-2017.
However, concerning the order related to the withdrawal of the placements which has been issued on December 16 last year, the SED has stated that the DSEK in its recommendation has stated that the candidates do not fulfil the conditions laid down by in the Government order No 940-Edu of 2017 dated 17-11-2017-which is a total contradiction to what the SED told the High Court when the promotions were ordered and also in the order which was issued by the then Principal Secretary, BK Singh.
While earlier, a different story was told to the court, this time around, the SED, in total contrast, has come up with the observations of the University of Kashmir, and Jammu, which have stated that the PG in Ecology and Environment in a distance mode is not equivalent to the corresponding degree of PG Environmental Science.
However, the case, which the petitioners are pleading is what the University Grants Commission (UGC) states about the degrees obtained must determine the case. It needs to be noted here that in 2013 as well as in 2022, UGC has noted that the degrees obtained in distance mode shall be treated as equivalent to the corresponding awards of the degrees offered through conventional mode.
While the matter remained settled for three years after the indulgence of the court, the withdrawal of placement in favour of these teachers, now, raises eyebrows and is also an open violation of the HC directives which stand issued already in this regard.
In contrast to what the position of the SED was earlier, coupled with the legal opinion that was sought from the Department of Law Justice & Parliamentary Affairs, which is documented, the department-as the documents available suggest-has now resorted to a U-turn as it stated that degrees obtained through distance mode in Environmental Science cannot be considered valid for the proposes of seniority and promotion.
The aggrieved teachers who were promoted as I/C Lecturers told Excelsior that upon the promotion, after the intervention of the court and the compliance report that was submitted by the SED, they joined their respective places of posting and have been drawing salaries as I/C Lecturers for the last nearly 8 months.
The documents available suggest that the cancellation of the promotion has got no legal standing as it points to the grave violation of the High Court orders, Government order 940 of 2017 and also an open violation of the SRO 339 of 2005.
Meanwhile, soon after the withdrawal of the placement, the DSEK has written to all the Chief Education Officers (CEOs) to identify the vacancies of 10+2 lecturers in various subjects from 2019 till date, which the aggrieved in-service teachers said, is aimed at harming them and pushing them further down the seniority list despite given years of service in the department.
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