Allahabad High Court
Smt. Indu Pandey vs State Of U.P. Thru. Prin. Secy. ... on 16 February, 2023
Bench: Pankaj Bhatia
HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT ALLAHABAD, LUCKNOW BENCH
?Court No. - 17
Case :- WRIT - A No. - 1299 of 2023
Petitioner :- Smt. Indu Pandey
Respondent :- State Of U.P. Thru. Prin. Secy. Basic Edu. Lko. And 4 Others
Counsel for Petitioner :- O.P. Tiwari
Counsel for Respondent :- C.S.C.,Kaushlendra Yadav,Rajiv Singh Chuahan
Hon'ble Pankaj Bhatia,J.
Heard learned counsel for the petitioner.
Contention of learned counsel for the petitioner is that the petitioner is employed as Assistant Teacher and has been called for performing the duties of BLO in terms of the directions given on 28.01.2023.
Main contention of the petitioner is that there is no time and schedule specified for the duties of BLO, which is affecting the teaching hours. He places reliance on the Division Bench judgment of this Court in the case of Nirbhay Singh & Others v. State of U.P. & Ors. (Writ - A No.26204 of 2021) decided on 11.08.2022 wherein this Court approved the Election Commission's guidelines and recorded in Paragraphs - 26 & 29 as under:
"26. In compliance of the aforesaid judgment, even the Election Commission of India has issued guidelines in detail. The same are reproduced as under:
1. Wherever teaching staff is put on duties of roll revision, the DEOs/EROs shall prescribe holidays and non-teaching days and not teaching hours as duly period for this work. Such appointees may be asked to avoid teaching days and teaching hours for undertaking the roll revision work. During roll revision, wherever the teachers are appointed as designated officers to make various Forms (Form-6, 7 etc) available to the voters and to receive the Forms from the voters, the DEOs/EROs shall prescribe a specific time during non-teaching hours for the purpose of providing and receiving such Forms. Preferably, minimum of one hour time immediately after the closure of teaching hours can be earmarked for this purpose. Depending on the prevailing teaching hours, the DEOs/ERO shall issue specific instruction and bring the same to the knowledge of all political parties and to the public well in advance.
2. Wherever special campaign dates are prescribed during the revision period, such complaint shall invariably be held on holidays only.
3. When an intensive revision is to be ordered, the schedule for revision shall be devised keeping the availability of holidays in mind. If the door-to-door verification has to be done on teaching days, such verification may be asked to be done after teaching hours and on holidays.
4. Whenever the teachers are used as Booth Level Officer for the purpose of door-to-door verification, for finding out cases of photo mismatches in the photo roll etc, the same exercise shall be done during non-teaching hours and on holidays.
5. Whenever needed, the period for enumeration work may be extended for this purpose so that the enumeration work is carried out without hampering the teaching hours.
"ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS
29. Question No.1 s answered in positive holding that the teachers can be deployed for election duty even before issuance of the notification relating to election to a Local Body, a State Assembly or the Parliament which includes work for revision of electoral roll.
Question No.2 is answered in negative holding that the teachers cannot be deployed during teaching days or teaching hours but can be on non-teaching days and non-teaching hours."
In view of the said decision, the present petition is disposed off directing respondents to ensure compliance of answer given in question no.2 by the Division Bench of this Court in the case of Nirbhay Singh (supra) while fixing the duties.
This order has been passed in the presence of Shri Kaushlendra Yadav, learned counsel for respondent no.2 and Shri Rajiv Singh Chauhan, learned counsel for respondent nos.4 & 5.
Order Date :- 16.2.2023
VNP/-
