HC seeks report on job status of 'mentally harassed' teacher

The Calcutta High Court today sought a report on the status of the job of a teacher who was not allowed to join duty after being absent since 2010 following illness owing to alleged mental harassment at the school.
The teacher, Madhurima Das, claimed that she had been suffering from "acute mental instability" following "mental harassment" by the managing committee of the school over her wearing salwar kameez to work.
Her counsel Ashis Chowdhury said in the petition that she had joined Maheshpur Prafulla Balika Bidya Mandir in South 24 Parganas district in 2010.
She was allegedly asked by the managing committee to wear sari instead of salwar kameez in the school, where she taught English language.

Chowdhury claimed that she was subjected to mental harassment following her refusal to abide by the directive of the committee and had subsequently fallen ill.
Das was under treatment and had not been able to attend school.

In July 2017, she was declared fit by her doctor, but was not allowed to join duty, her lawyer Chowdhury claimed, adding she then gave a representation to the district inspector of schools, but did not get any favourable response.
Following this, Das moved the High Court seeking to know the status with regard to her job at the school.
The lawyer representing the state submitted that the plea was not maintainable as the petitioner had moved the court after a gap of seven years during which she had remained absent from work.

Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty directed the West Bengal education department to submit a report on steps taken by it and the district inspector of schools in South 24 Parganas district till date with regard to her service from 2010.
The judge directed that the report be submitted by November 20 when the matter would be taken up for hearing again.