Minhajuddin Vs State of West Bengal and Ors. — Calcutta HC (2026) — LawSathi Research

Minhajuddin Vs State of West Bengal and Ors. — Calcutta HC (2026) — LawSathi Research

What the court decided

AI extract

Outcome

Impugned order set aside; appellant's transfer application to be processed as per the Rules of transfer prevalent and existing, to be strictly complied with by the respondents; hierarchy of authorities from the school up to the Board to act off line and communicate with the petitioner both off line and online; D.I. of Schools and WBBPE expected to complete the decision within two months from communication of a copy of the order; no order as to costs.

Issue for consideration

Whether an application for transfer on listed medical grounds under the transfer Rules can be made before expiry of five years of service. +1 more

Court's answer

The Single Bench decision calls for interference because an application for transfer on medical ground can be made even before expiry of five years of service, a medical condition being capable of arising at any point of time and not within the control of the teacher concerned.

Ratio / Principle

Abuse or misuse of any beneficial provision by one section of teachers cannot be a ground for rejecting every application and adding further inflexibility to the existing Rules.

Key takeaways

Instances of abuse cited are exceptions to be dealt with by the Authorities through appropriate investigations; the first stage is a reference by the D.I. of Schools to the Chief Medical Officer of the District on the petitioner's medical condition, and if a condition pre-existing at first entry is detected, it should be ascertained whether the applicant was aware of it.ratio¶14
The State shall be at liberty to revisit the transfer Rules and make them more appropriately stringent and foolproof.obiter¶16

Detailed headnote1 paragraphs

Appeal (MAT 1342 of 2025) against Single Bench order dated 15.07.2025 in WPA 10617 of 2025 refusing a school teacher's transfer on a listed medical ground in the transfer Rules for want of five years' service. Held by the Division Bench (Rajasekhar Mantha and Rai Chattopadhyay, JJ., decided 24.07.2026): an application for transfer on listed medical grounds under the Rules can be made even before expiry of five years of service, since a medical condition can crop up at any time and is not within the teacher's control; abuse or misuse of the beneficial provision by some teachers (e.g., suppression of conditions at entry) is no ground for rejecting every application or adding inflexibility to the Rules, such exceptions being addressable through investigation beginning with a reference by the D.I. of Schools to the Chief Medical Officer of the District, including enquiry whether a pre-existing condition was known to the applicant at entry; the State remains at liberty to revisit and tighten the Rules. Impugned order set aside; application to be processed per the prevailing transfer Rules, with the D.I. of Schools and the WBBPE expected to decide within two months; no order as to costs.

24.07.2026. Court No. 13 Item No. 10 pk

MAT 1342 of 2025 With I.A. No. CAN 1 of 2025

Minhajuddin -Versus-

The State of West Bengal & Ors.

Mr. Robiul Islam, Sk. Jayed Hossain Mr. Raju Mondal Mr. M. Rahman

… for the appellant .

Mr. Subir Sanyal Mr. Ratul Biswas, Mr. Kaushik Choudhury

… for the WBBPE.

The instant appeal is directed against an order dated 15.07.2025 passed by a Single Bench of this Court in WPA 10617 of 2025.

The grievance of the appellant before the Single Bench was that he was suffering from listed medical condition in the transfer Rules and hence applied for transfer. The same was rejected on the ground that he had not completed five years of service. While there is some ambiguity as to whether the petitioner may have completed five years service, this Court has held in several cases that an application for transfer on listed medical grounds in the Rules can be made even before expiry of five years.

Mr. Subir Sanyal, learned senior counsel appearing for the respondents has argued that there are many cases where medical certificates are given for

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asking, the Rules for transfer on medical ground are also abused by suppressing conditions at the time of entry into the school.

This Court is of the view that example cited by Mr. Sanyal are exceptions can be dealt with by the Authorities by appropriate investigations. The first stage of investigation is the reference to the Chief Medical Officer of the District by the D.I. of Schools on the medical condition of the petitioner. If it is detected that the condition was preexisting even at the time of first entry of the school, it should be ascertained as to whether the applicant was aware of the same or not.

An abuse or misuse of any beneficial provision by one section of teachers, cannot be a ground for rejecting every application and adding further inflexibility to the existing Rules.

The State shall be at liberty to revisit their Rules and make it more appropriately stringent and foolproof.

The decision of the Single Bench, however, calls for interference since the application for transfer on medical ground can be made even before expiry of five years of service. The reason therefor is that a medical condition can crop up at any point of time and are not within the control of the teacher concerned.

In the light of the above, the impugned order shall stand set aside. The petitioner’s application shall

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be processed as per the Rules of transfer prevalent and existing and it shall be strictly complied with by the respondents.

Since the petitioner had applied off line, let the hierarchy of the authorities from the school onwards on the way up to the Board take steps off line and communicate with the petitioner both off line and online as may be available.

It is expected that the decision of the D. I. of Schools and the West Bengal Board of Primary Education is completed within a period of two months from the date of communication of a copy of this order.

With the aforesaid observations, MAT 1342 of 2025 is disposed of. Consequently pending application is also disposed of.

There shall be no order as to costs.

All parties shall act on the server copy of this order duly downloaded from the official website of this Court.

(Rajasekhar Mantha, J.)

(Rai Chattopadhyay, J.)