Soumen Kumar Bankura v. State Of West Bengal And ORS.

WPA 6369 of 2026 10.04.

Ct. No. 24 Soumen Kumar Bankura Vs.

The State of West Bengal and others.

sdas --------------- Mr. Sudip Ghosh Chowdhury, Ms. Shreyeta Mitra, Ms. Pritha Biswas, Ms. Upasana Sarkar.

... for the petitioner.

Mr. Tapas Kumar Roy ... for the State.

Mr. Sunit Kumar Roy Ms. Susmita Mondal ... for the SSC.

1. The affidavit of service filed today is taken on record.

2. In spite of service, the School Authority is not represented.

3. The petitioner is an Assistant Teacher.

4. The petitioner has made an application for transfer on own seeking on the ground of distance.

5. The said application was rejected in the year, 2021.

6. The rejection of an earlier application by the respondent no. 5 on the ground of single teacher issue, cannot be sustained in view of the conclusive dictum of this Hon'ble Court as held in Gokul Chandra Mallick vs. State of West Bengal & Ors, in MAT 1218 of 2024 and Rupak Dhua vs. State of West Bengal & Ors., in FMA 995 of 2025 that the single teacher issue or dealing teacher issue is

contrary to a Notification of January 3, 2022.

7. The decision taken by the District Inspector of Schools, is prima facie faulty and not in accordance with the dictum of this Hon.ble Court. However, since a long period of time has lapsed and the surrounding facts and circumstances may have changed, it would be appropriate for the petitioner to file a fresh application for transfer on the selfsame ground with the school authorities by May 30, 2026, who shall immediate issue a No Objection Certificate and forward the same to the District Inspector of Schools by June 15, 2026.

8. The respondent no. 5 will deal with such application strictly and in line with the decisions in Gokul Chandra Mallick (supra) and Rupak Dhua (supra) and take all consequential steps in accordance with law and irrespective of the fact whether local arrangement can be done or not.

9. Temporary suspension of 'Utsashree Portal' will not be an impediment for the concerned authority to consider the application for transfer of the petitioner. The same shall be considered in an offline mode.

10. With these aforesaid directions, the writ petition is disposed of.

11. There shall, however, be no order as to costs.

12. Urgent Photostat certified copy of this order, if

applied for, be given to the parties on priority basis. (Reetobroto Kumar Mitra, J.)