Stop gender bias in teachers’ promotion, HC directs govt

Jaipur: Expressing displeasure over discrimination based on gender in issuing the seniority list of teachers for their promotion to the post of Grade-II teachers, a single bench of Rajasthan High Court in its order on Sept 9 ruled that women teachers cannot be deprived of promotion only on the ground that the number of girls' schools in the state is less.
The court has directed the state govt to not only include the petitioners in the promotion made against the vacancies of Grade-II teachers of 2008-09 and 2009-10, but also give its benefit to other women teachers appointed till 1998.The court has granted a time of three months to the state govt to complete it.
The bench of Justice Anoop Kumar Dhand gave this order while hearing the petition filed by Manju Bala Chaudhary and others on Sept 9. The court also said, “On one hand the state govt is promoting a slogan of Beti Bachao-Beti Padhao and on the other hand it is denying promotion to women teachers merely because the govt claimed that there are more boys' schools than those of girls in the state. Under the Indian Constitution, no one can be discriminated against on the basis of gender.”
In the petition, advocate H R Kumawat told the court that the state govt prepared the seniority list against the vacancies of second class teachers of 2008-09 and 2009-10.
“In this list, Grade-III male teachers till 1998 were included in the list of seniority and were granted promotions as Grade-II teachers. However, for the women teachers, only those who were appointed till 1986 were considered for promotion,” said Kumawat.