Heard Sri Ran Vijay Yadav, learned counsel for petitioners.
Notice on behalf of opposite-parties no. 1,2 and 3 has been accepted by the office of learned Chief Standing Counsel, while notice on behalf of opposite-party no.4 by Sri Rajiv Singh Chauhan, learned counsel.
During the course of arguments, learned counsel for the petitioners prays for and is permitted to implead the Election Commission of India through its Chief Election Commissioner, New Delhi as opposite party no.5 and the amended copy shall be provided to the counsel for respondent no.5, within 2 working days.
The petitioners are Assistant Teachers in Basic School under the Basic Shiksha Parishad, U.P., Allahabad.
The grievance of the petitioners is that the fourth respondent has served an order thereby requisitioning the services of the petitioners as Booth Level Officer for revision of voter-lists.
It is the contention of the learned counsel for the petitioners that such requisition is illegal and is in the teeth of the provisions of section 27 of Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education, 2009 which provides that no teacher shall be deployed for any non-educational purposes other than the decennial population census, disaster relief duties or duties relating to elections to the local authority, or to the State legislatures or Parliament, as the case may be. It has been submitted that the revision of the voter-list does not fall in any of those categories because that does not relate to decennial population census and as the elections have not yet been notified, therefore, the deployment, as directed, is illegal and is in the teeth of the provisions of Section 27 of the RTE Act, 2009. In support of the aforesaid submission, reliance has also been placed on a Division Bench decision of this Court in Sunita Sharma v. State of U.P. and others : 2015 (3) ESC 1289 (All) (DB).
The matter requires consideration.
Learned counsel(s) for respondents pray for and are allowed three weeks time to file their respective counter affidavits. Two weeks, thereafter, shall be for the petitioners to file rejoinder affidavit.
List thereafter along with Writ Petition No.l5635 (S/S) of 2018.
In the meantime, the petitioners shall not be forced to perform duties as a Booth Level Officer.
Order Date :- 29.5.2018 Suresh/ [Rajesh Singh Chauhan,J.]