The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court has issued a stay on the seniority determination process for nationalized primary school teachers in the country. Along with this, the court suspended the High Court`s decision to promote the head teacher by counting 50 percent service without counting from the date of nationalization.
On Sunday (November 20), a three-judge appellate bench headed by Chief Justice Hasan Faiz Siddiqui passed the order.
Senior lawyer MK Rahman, Momtaz Uddin Fakir, Md. heard on behalf of the writ in the court. Motahar Hossain Saju, Syed Ahmed Raja. Advocate Mohammad Siddiq Ullah Miah, Nigar Sultana was also present. Additional Attorney General Sheikh Mohammad Morsed heard for the state.
The petitioner`s lawyer Siddique Ullah Miah confirmed the verdict.
Earlier, the Supreme Court Appellate Division`s Chamber Judge Court suspended the High Court`s verdict in this matter for 6 months.
It is known that in a letter sent by the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education from the Ministry of Public Administration on February 23, it is said that there is no statutory opportunity to calculate the previous service period in determining the seniority of teachers in government-run primary schools.
In this regard, Advocate Mohammad Siddique Ullah Mia said, "According to Rule 2(c) of the Acquired Private Primary School Teachers (Determination of Employment Conditions) Rules, there is a provision to calculate 50 percent of the service period of government primary school teachers before assimilation, but that rule was not followed while preparing the seniority list."
Seniority has been listed without accepting it. The last part of Rule 9(1) states, "The post of Assistant Teacher shall be fixed below the last person directly appointed to the post of Teacher under the earlier Recruitment Rules" which is inconsistent with the Constitution.
He further contended that the acquired private primary school teachers filed a writ petition in the High Court challenging the latter part of Section 9(1) of the (Determination of Conditions of Employment) Rules. Later, at the end of the final hearing, the High Court ruled on March 11 last year by declaring the position of assistant teacher below the last person directly appointed as a teacher under the previous recruitment rules to be illegal. The Ministry of Primary and Mass Education appealed to the Supreme Court against the verdict. After hearing the appeal, the Supreme Court asked to hear the appeal again. which is pending hearing in the Appellate Division.
He also said that teachers of government-run primary schools across the country have already filed multiple writ petitions in the High Court. which is pending for hearing. But ignoring the orders of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court and the High Court Division, the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education sent a letter to the Ministry of Public Administration for its opinion on February 8.
On February 23, the Ministry of Public Administration issued a statutory provision to calculate the seniority of teachers in government-run primary schools, which is in contempt of the Appellate Division and High Court orders of the Supreme Court. Therefore a notice has been sent on behalf of the teachers to cancel or withdraw the letter dated February 23 of the Ministry of Public Administration.
Prior to this, 26,193 primary schools were nationalized as per Prime Minister`s announcement on January 1, 2013. In that context, during the preparation of the combined seniority list of the teachers of the old government primary school and the newly nationalized primary school, the seniority list is prepared by showing the position of the newly nationalized teachers below the direct appointed teachers of the government primary school prior to 2013 according to the sub-rule 1 of rule 9 of the adopted private primary school teacher rules 2013.
SR
