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Himachal Pradesh High Court, in its judgment today, made significant observations on Education system, precisely teachers and their conduct in addition to cases instituted upon frivolous motives only to abuse the Court process.

“To be a Teacher is a Sacred Mission. Dedication to the cause of education is the Hallmark of a Teacher” ~ Himachal Pradesh High Court

A Division Bench of Justice Tarlok Singh Chauhan and Justice Chander Bhusan Barowalia, while dismissing the present petition with costs of Rs 50000, observed, “The conduct of the petitioner and her husband is totally unbecoming of the teacher and cannot therefore lightly to be brushed aside, especially, in the given background that they took law into their own hands by entering into the office of the third respondent without permission and if that was not enough, they opened the official table locker and also marked the attendance in the Teachers’ Attendance Register and, therefore, deserve to be charge-sheeted for a major misconduct.

If the laws and principles are eroded by the teachers themselves, then it not only pollutes the functioning of the institution, deteriorates its standard but also exhibits to its own students the wrong channel adopted. If that be so, how could such educational institutions produce good citizens?”

Both the petitioner and her husband happens to be the teachers in Government School.

As per the report of the Principal, Government Senior Secondary School, Bhali, when respondent No. 3 (Principal, GSSS, Bhali ) was on official duty to the office of Deputy Director, Higher Education, Kangra at Dharamshala, the petitioner alongwith her husband entered his office without permission from any person in the campus.

Thereafter, the petitioner opened the official table locker and marked her attendance in the Teachers Attendance Register.

The private respondent has also brought to records that the petitioner has manipulated transfer/posting by obtaining D.O. note from the local MLA and got herself re-adjusted at Government High School on 11.12.2020.

With respect to Abuse of Court process, the bench relied on Supreme Court findings in Kishore Samrite v. State of UP, (2013) 2 SCC 398; “Quests for personal gains have become so intense that those involved in litigation do not hesitate to take shelter of falsehood and misrepresent and suppress facts in the court proceedings. Materialism, opportunism and malicious intent have over-shadowed the old ethos of litigative values for small gains. A litigant who attempts to pollute the stream of justice or who touches the pure fountain of justice with tainted hands is not entitled to any relief, interim or final.”

It was concluded that the petitioner alongwith her husband has abused the process of the Court and these observations be also been entered in the confidential report. Enquiry to be initiated against both the petitioner and her husband; “Court proceedings are sacrosanct and should not be polluted by unscrupulous litigants.”

Case Title: Archana Rana v. State of HP | CWP No. 6241 of 2020