SHAMBHU NATH SHASTRI Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petition is at the instance of a President, Punjab Hindi Sanskrit Vikas Parishad, seeking for direction to the State represented through the Director of Public Instruction (Schools),Punjab, Chandigarh, that it shall appoint only a teacher each in the subject of Sanskrit in Government High School and Government Girls Senior Secondary School at Batala every time when a vacancy arose in the same subject. The petitioner rues over the fact that every time when a teacher from Sanskrit faculty retires, the fresh appointee is brought for some other language and in the process Sanskrit teaching schools are getting marginalized to a state of extinction. The State has filed counter denying that there is any violation of the policy laid down by the State Government and in response to the particular averment that they were appointing only a Hindi teacher for teaching Sanskrit, such a situation arose only because there was no Sanskrit teacher available at that time. Meeting the allegation contained in the petition that one Smt. Nirmal Kumari, who was a Hindi teacher and was working on the post as a Sanskrit teacher, the reply by State is that the appointment was made in good faith and in the interest of students and in public interest. From what is stated in the written statement of the State, I find that the State is not prepared to scuttle its own policy but would take a plea of bona fides in the manner in which they have appointed Hindi teachers against the posts which were created for teaching Sanskrit. There is a clear -cut policy stated by the Government of Punjab, Department of Education, as evident from the communication to the Chairman, Punjab School Education Board, through a memo dated 19.09.1985. The reproduction of the whole memo is relevant for that will set the tenor of the State's policy: -

(2.) THE Government has clearly taken the stand that even in situations where there was no arrangement existing for teaching of Sanskrit or Urdu, the school would have to make an arrangement for the study in these two languages if the number of students taking a particular language in the 9th or 10th class are more than 10 or above. The authorities are bound to enforce this policy of filling up the languages teachers only in the particular stream for which vacancies exist. Before any attempt is made to abolish any particular language teacher's post, data must be collected as to whether or not there exists at least 10 candidates, who are willing to learn the language. We cannot simply afford to neglect the treasure that ancient languages such as Sanskrit holds. Sanskrit cannot be allowed to wither by our own negligence. The culture of every nation is fostered through its language. It is the medium of language that is the carrier of a country's ethos. The State through the Director of Public Instructions shall circulate a definite mandate that a vacancy in Sanskrit teacher's post shall be filled up only by a trained, qualified Sanskrit teacher and even if new classes in Sanskrit are not opened, the existing one shall not be abolished without definite data in that regard. Appointments shall be so made that when a vacancy is caused in Sanskrit language post, it shall be directed to be is filled up by a trained teacher in the same language and there shall be no breach of this direction. The writ petition is disposed of as above.