'Never Bothered About Fate Of School Children': Orissa High Court Upholds Removal Of Teacher For 7 Yrs Unauthorized Absence

The Orissa High Court has recently upheld a single bench order which had confirmed the disengagement/removal order passed against a female school teacher, on the ground of her unauthorised absence from duty for more than 7 years.While expressing disinclination to interfere with the impugned order, the Division Bench of Justice Dixit Krishna Shripad and Justice Chittaranjan Dash emphasised the role of a school teacher in shaping destiny of young students, and hence observed–“What difficulty the community of taught would be put to for want of a teacher leads one to a wild imagination. It is more so in this competitive age. Teachers are revered as builders of nation. Such is the importance any civilized society would attach to the teaching job more particularly that are meant for tender minds. Therefore, our scriptures say 'gurubhyo namah', literally meaning 'salutations to the teacher'.”Succinctly put, the appellant was engaged as a 'Sikhya Sahayak' in the Upper Primary School, Gobindapur, Gajapati on 20.04.2011. She allegedly remained in unauthorized leave from 20.06.2013. As even after seven years of unauthorized absence she did not resume her duty, a disengagement order was issued by the Collector-cum-Chief Executive Officer, Zilla Parishad, Gajapati on 20.10.2020.Being aggrieved by such removal order, the appellant filed a representation on 12.01.2021 imploring to rescind the disengagement, but in vain. Thereafter, she challenged the impugned removal order before the Single Bench of the Court, which did not find any merit in her writ petition. Thus, she carried this intra-court appeal before the Division Bench seeking annulment of the impugned removal order as well as the Single Bench's order.The Court, at the outset, pointed out an unreasonable delay of 592 days in preferring the writ appeal against the Single Bench order. Though the Bench found it a valid ground for dismissing the appeal at the threshold itself, yet it considered the lis on merit. Perusing the facts of the case, it remarked–“The Appellant has unauthorisedly abandoned her service as teacher from 20.06.2013; i.e. roughly for a long period of 7 years. A formal Disengagement Order came to be issued on 20.10.2020. It is clear that she has made no attempt whatsoever in these 7 years to resume her duty. She never bothered about the fate of school children, whom she had to teach. On the contrary, she was more bothered about her family.”Relying upon the service jurisprudence vis-à-vis abandonment of duty, as cemented by the Apex Court in the cases of G.T. Lad v. Chemical & Fibres of India Ltd. (1978), State of Punjab v. Dr. P.L Singla (2008) and Government of India v. George Philip (2006), the Court was of the firm view that unauthorised leave/abandonment of duty, especially in the realm of teaching, is intolerable which cannot be condoned by constitutional courts lightly.Consequently, the Court dismissed the intra-court appeal by observing–“Since, abandonment per se causes cessation of employment, the order of removal entered following such abandonment is formal in character. Such an order does not bring about cessation, but only places on record the factum of cessation of vinculum juris. The umbilical cord thus gets separated by the act of employee and the subsequent order at the hands of employer only recognizes this factum. In other words the order is not constitutive of abandonment but only evidentiary.”Case Title: Suchitra Mohapatra v. State of Odisha & Ors.Case No: Writ Appeal No. 612 of 2025Date of Judgment: February 20, 2026Counsel for the Appellant: M/s. Santosh Kumar Swain & S.C. Bairiganjan, AdvocatesCounsel for the Respondents: Mr. S.B. Mohanty, Addl. Govt. AdvocateCitation: 2026 LiveLaw (Ori) 23Click Here To Read/Download Order

'Never Bothered About Fate Of School Children': Orissa High Court Upholds Removal Of Teacher For 7 Yrs Unauthorized Absence

Jyoti Prakash Dutta

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