Delhi passes Bill to regularise 15,000 guest teachers in special one-day session

The Delhi Assembly on Wednesday passed the ‘Regularisation of Services of Guest Teachers and Teachers engaged under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan Bill, 2017.’ Delhi Education Minister Manish Sisodia introduced the Bill at a special one-day session of the assembly despite being asked by the Delhi Lieutenant-Governor Anil Baijal to reconsider.

The Bill will now be sent to the L-G for his approval, where it might face resistance.

Atishi Marlena, advisor to the Delhi Education Minister Manish Sisodia told Catch, “All those present at the Assembly unanimously voted in favour of the Bill. The Opposition BJP MLAs walked out before the voting could begin. However, they did not protest while the Bill was being introduced in the Assembly.”

The Bill says that all guest teachers and Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan teachers, who have been working for at least 120 days after 1 April, 2016 and meet the minimum educational qualifications, will be regularised against the existing vacancies.

According to Delhi government sources, a Cabinet meeting was held at 1 pm before the Assembly session to discuss the LG’s recommendation to reconsider the Bill. The source said, “The Cabinet discussed and decided that this is not regarding ‘services’ but education. And education is within the purview of the elected government. Therefore, the Cabinet decided to table the Bill in the Assembly,” a source said.

The L-G wrote to Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday, telling him that the “introduction and consideration of the Bill is not in accordance with the constitutional scheme of governance of NCT of Delhi.” Baijal said the matter of the Bill is related to 'services' and not education.

The L-G’s office said that the process for introducing a Bill includes “mandatory consultation with the Law Department as to the competence of the Legislature of the Capital to enact the measures proposed”.

It further said, “The L-G has noted that this issue is important as the subject matter of the Bill relates to ‘Services’, and as clarified by MHA Notification… dated 21st May 2015 and affirmed by Hon’ble High Court of Delhi in its judgment dated 04.08.2016… the matter relating to ‘services’ falls beyond the legislative competence of the Legislative Assembly of NCT of Delhi”.

According to the Delhi government, 15,000 out of the around 17,000 guest teachers employed by government schools would benefit from regularisation. The remaining 2,000 teachers had not cleared the Central Teacher Eligibility Test, which is a requisite for recruitment.

According to Marlena, “This is the furthest we have moved in terms of regularisation of guest teachers. The policy for guest teachers has so far now only been in discussion. The fact that the Bill has been passed is a big decision in favour of the thousands of teachers who have been working for years but haven’t received the benefits of permanent positions in Delhi government schools.”

Meanwhile, according to an IANS report, more than two dozen people staged a protest outside Delhi Assembly on Wednesday against the Bill. The protestors, who claimed to be aspirants, demanded holding of a competitive exam for all aspirants and not to give any special treatment to guest teachers.