STATE OF KARNATAKA & ANR versus KRISHNA KUMAR & ORS.

Citation: [2019] 7 S.C.R. 962 · Decided: 23-04-2019 · Supreme Court of India · Bench: ARUN MISHRA, NAVIN SINHA · Disposal: Appeal(s) allowed

Judgment (excerpt)

A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
962
SUPREME COURT REPORTS
[2019] 7 S.C.R.
STATE OF KARNATAKA & ANR.
v.
KRISHNA KUMAR & ORS.
(Civil Appeal Nos. 4089-4241 of 2019)
APRIL 23, 2019
[ARUN MISHRA AND NAVIN SINHA, JJ.]
Education/Educational Institutions: Government primary
schools – Implementation of Sarava Shikshana Abhiyana Scheme
– Upgradation of certain primary schools with 8th standard to give
effect to the Scheme and referred as Higher Primary Schools –
Appointment of teachers in the schools – Issuance of Office
Memorandum by the State Government in the matter of transfer of
teachers of Higher Primary Schools on ‘mutual basis’ – Challenge
to – Office Memorandum relating to mutual transfer quashed by
the tribunal and the High Court – On appeal, held: SSA Scheme
was to deal with the primary objective of broad basing education –
Clause 13 of the Office Memorandum dealt with the mutual transfer
– There is no provision in the Act and rules with respect to mutual
transfers – When the provisions of ‘mutual transfer’ which is made
in Office Memorandum, depends on the volition of an employee,
there is no compulsion, it cannot be said to be arbitrary – It is
ordered only when two incumbents opt for mutual transfer – Thus,
the provisions of mutual transfer does not militate against the
provisions of the Act and rules framed thereunder and particularly,
when it was with respect to SSA Scheme, it was open to making
certain provisions by way of Office Memorandum – In the absence
of statutory provision, the executive instructions would have force
of law, more so when the SSA is an independent scheme – Thus, the
tribunal and the High Court erred in law in quashing the same –
Orders passed by the tribunal as well as by the High Court set
aside – KCS (Regulation of Transfers of Teachers) Act, 2007.
CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION : Civil Appeal Nos. 4089-
4241 of 2019.
From the Judgment and Order  dated   09.01.2013 of the  High
Court of Karnataka at Bangalore in Writ Petition Nos. 13334 of 2012
and 14461-612 of 2012 (S-KAT).
   [2019] 7 S.C.R. 962
962
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
963
Basava Prabhu S. Patil, Sr. Adv., V. N. Raghupathy, Ms. Rachitha
Hiremath, Parikshit P. Angadi, Chinmay Deshpande, Manendra Pal Gupta,
Advs. for the Appellants.
Mahesh Thakur, Vijay Kumar, Ms. Vipasha Singh, Dr. Sushil
Balwada, Nandakumar, Palanivehi, Ms. Deepika Nanda Kumar,
Naresh Kumar, Shailesh Madiyal, Sudhanshu Prakash, Advs. for the
Respondents.
The following Order of the Court was passed
O R D E R
1. The State of Karnataka has filed appeals aggrieved by the
Judgment and Order passed by the Tribunal and affirmed by the High
Court quashing in part the Memo dated 7.4.2010 issued by the State
Government in the matter of transfer of teachers of Higher Primary
Schools on “Mutual Basis”.
2. The respondents are the teachers appointed in the year 2004-
2005 in the Government primary schools where ‘Sarava Shikshana
Abhiyana’ Scheme (in short, “the SSA Scheme”) was being implemented.
The objective of the SSA Scheme is to provide easy access to 8th standard
in the context of universalization of elementary education.  In order to
give effect to the scheme certain Government primary schools have
been upgraded with 8th standard and they are referred to as “Higher
Primary Schools”.  65% of the salary used to be provided by the Central
Government.  Under the said scheme, in order to make the education
broad-based certain Government primary schools were permitted to
impart 8th standard for the benefit and the improvement of educating
children in the rural areas, particularly at the places where very few
high schools were existing.  This decision was taken by the Government
to encourage the students to continue the 8th standard education in the
rural areas itself, though 8th standard was part of the high school for
which Trained Graduate Teachers used to be appointed.
3. On 07.04.2010, an Office Memorandum was issued inter alia
to transfer and posting of teachers in the schools where the SSA Scheme
has been implemented.  One of the policy decisions is that those teachers
appointed as primary teachers in the upgraded Government higher
primary schools will continue to work in the SSA Scheme.  The primary
teachers appointed under the SSA Scheme shall be transferred to the
STATE OF KARNATAKA v. KRISHNA KUMAR
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
964
SUPREME COURT REPORTS
[2019] 7 S.C.R.
post of Teachers of the same subject under the same project.  It is also
provided that the teachers can submit their applications for ‘mut

Excerpt shown. Read the full judgment & AI analysis in Lexace.