Patna, Jan. 7: In the light of the Supreme Court’s judgment, Patna High Court today disposed of a petition seeking relief for primary teachers from census and poll-related duty.

Citing the apex court’s judgement, a division bench of Justice Shiva Kirti Singh and Justice Ravi Ranjan observed that the country’s top court had clarified that teachers should not be engaged in election and census during working hours.

The court disposed of the public interest litigation petition filed by one Satyendra Kumar Shandilya seeking direction to the state government to not to engage schoolteachers in conducting census and poll-related work.

Dinu Kumar, the counsel of the petitioner, submitted that taking non-academic work from teachers hampers the study of schoolchildren, particularly those in the age group of 6-14, as the Centre has made right to education a fundamental right.

Kumar contended that if the teachers were employed in election duty it would adversely impact the academic atmosphere of the schools that are already facing the heat of faculty crunch. The advocate said schools were closed for quite a long time because of the recent Assembly polls, severely affecting the studies.

Again, the panchayat polls scheduled for April-May might disturb the academic process if teachers were engaged in election duty, he added.

Election commission’s counsel J.P. Karna cited the provision of Section 27 of right of children to free and compulsory education act 2009, which allowed the commission to take the services of teachers.