Delhi High Court Fines SDMC as the organization fails to requisition special educators in its schools

Vinod Kakumanu
Jan. 30, 2021, 12:37 p.m.

The South Delhi Municipal Corporation has been penalized by the Delhi High Court as the civic body failed to send the requisition for teachers to fill the 1100 vacant posts of special educators in its schools. The court has imposed a fine of Rs. 25,000 on the body.

The presiding judge called the conduct of the civic body into question by calling it negligent towards the need of the section requiring special education.

The civic body was supposed to requisition special educators from the Delhi Subordinate Service Selection Board (DSSSB) the failure on this account brought about the reprimand and the fine from the Judicature.

The court had directed the body to expedite the process of recruitment in the vacant positions and conclude it within 3 weeks on December 18. After the passage of more than 3 weeks since the court’s direction, the SDMC failed to place requisition, and this instigated the court to fine the corporation.

The judge imposed the fine and further directed the corporation to send the requisition immediately, and should it fail to do so within 2 weeks, the commissioner shall submit an affidavit explaining the cause of failure. The court will review the case in the hearing scheduled on February 10.

The court has intervened after the corporation failed to fill 1132 vacant special educator positions in corporation schools.

The complainant in the case was a social organization named Social Jurist that filed a contempt case against the corporation as it failed to comply with a division bench order to initiate the process in a specified time.

The complainant submitted that the positions in question have been vacant for a decade and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi has not shown any inclination for filling them up as evidenced by the failure to even requisition with the DSSSB and placing advertisements, despite the explicit ruling of the division bench directing it to do so. The complainant submitted, and the court seconded, that the inaction of the corporation has aggrieved the children in need of special education.

The DSSSB had intimated to the court that till 2017 it has received a requisition for 1540 posts and in response, a total of 445 selected dossiers were sent to the corporation.

The state has made certain relaxations in the eligibility criteria in view of the prolonged vacancies. Notably, the age upper age limit was relaxed, and a one-time relaxation was given in the Central Teacher Eligibility Test pass condition post the set cut-off date.