The Supreme Court today ruled that government school teachers cannot be asked to skip classes and undertake non-academic activities like election duties, census work or polio drop campaigns.A bench of Justice S B Sinha and Justice H S Bedi, however, said that the services of government teachers can be utilised for such purposes during school holidays and non-teaching hours.The court said services of the non-teaching school staff can be utilised for such duties during any time of the year.The apex court passed the ruling while dismissing an appeal filed by the Election Commission of India challenging the August 11, 2004 order of the Delhi High Court, which had also ruled that services of government teachers cannot be utilised for non-academic work during school hours.It upheld the contention that utilisation of government school teachers for non-academic purposes like election duties resulted in disruption of studies of students who mainly come from poor and middle class families.The Delhi High Court had passed the ruling on a PIL filed by the management of the St Mary's School and others questioning the utilisation of teachers of government schools for non-academic duties.
