MHC warns Chennai Corp Commissioner will be summoned if failed to submit report

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has warned that the Chennai Corporation Commissioner and the deputy commissioner of education will be summoned if they fail to submit a report regarding the non-filing of the 400 graduate teacher vacant posts in Chennai corporation schools.

The petition was listed before a division bench comprising Justice R Selva Kumar and Justice K Kumaresh Babu. The judges expressed shock when the corporation said that over 400 vacancies are still left unfilled in the corporation schools in Chennai corporation limits.

Further, the judges emphasised that the students have suffered as 400 vacancies have not been filled despite the availability of qualified teachers.

The bench directed the Chennai corporation to submit a report about why no steps have been taken to fill the 400 vacant posts of graduate teachers in the last 10 years by giving promotions to qualified teachers. Further, the bench ordered the Chennai Corporation commissioner and the deputy commissioner of education to file the report on or before July 26, 2023.

They warned that if the report is not filed the corporation commissioner and deputy commissioner of education must appear before the court, the bench ruled.

The court questioned the corporation in connection with a case filed in 2015, where petitioner Selvakumar, an elementary school teacher at Chennai corporation school at Pulianthope, moved the Madras High Court (MHC) seeking to direct the Chennai corporation to promote him as a graduate teacher. The MHC dismissed the petition in 2018. However, the petitioner appealed before the MHC challenging this order.