The Supreme Court on Thursday sought responses from the Union government and States on a plea seeking a comprehensive national welfare framework for private school teachers across the country [Ligimol George v. Union of India & Ors.].

A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta issued notice on the petition filed by Ligimol George, National Coordinator of the All India Teachers Federation.

The petitioner moved the Court contending that private school teachers form a substantial part of India's teaching workforce but do not have a dedicated national statutory mechanism for their welfare.

Hence, a National Private School Teachers Welfare Board or a similar institutional mechanism to coordinate and monitor welfare measures across States should be established, it was submitted.

According to the petition, existing laws such as the Employees' State Insurance Act, Employees' Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, Payment of Gratuity Act and the Code on Social Security, 2020 provide only limited or fragmented protection to private school teachers, depending on eligibility requirements and State-specific regulations.

The petitioner relied on the UDISE+ 2023-24 data to highlight the scale of the issue. As per the same, 37,30,047 teachers are employed in recognised private unaided schools across India.

According to the petition, many private school teachers work on contractual, temporary, ad hoc, fixed-pay or annually renewable appointments and retire without assured pension, adequate medical assistance, insurance, disability protection or other post-retirement benefits.

The absence of uniform welfare protection results in unequal treatment of teachers performing substantially similar functions across States and institutions, it was contended.

The petition was filed through advocate Deepak Prakash.