1,895 schools in MP without a single teacher: MP High Court seeks State's response on PIL

The Madhya Pradesh High Court's Principal Bench at Jabalpur recently issued notice to the State of Madhya Pradesh and the Union of India on a public interest litigation (PIL) petition alleging a systemic collapse of public school education infrastructure across the State [Saurabh Tripathi v. State of Madhya Pradesh and Others].

The plea filed by lawyer Saurabh Tripathi flagged that 1,895 schools in the State were functioning without a single teacher.

Conversely, 435 schools with zero student enrolment continue to have teachers posted to them, including 128 teachers deployed across 85 schools where no posts were ever sanctioned, it was pointed out.

A Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice Vivek Rusia and Justice Pradeep Mittal issued notice to the State on July 14 and sought its response within four weeks.

The plea relies substantially on CAG Report No. 10 of 2025, a Compliance Audit covering 66,814 government schools for the period 2018 to March 2023, tabled in the State Legislature on February 20, 2026, and corroborated by investigative reports published in Dainik Bhaskar's Indore edition in April 2026.

The petitioner placed reliance on Comptroller and Auditor General's report of 2025, a compliance audit covering 66,814 government schools for the period 2018 to March 2023.

The CAG report was tabled in the State Legislature on February 20 and corroborated by investigative reports published in Dainik Bhaskar's Indore edition in April 2026.

According to the petition, the audit found 1,895 schools 1,379 primary and 479 middle schools functioning without a single teacher while 435 schools with zero student enrolment continue to have teachers posted to them.

The petitioner also highlighted a wider staffing imbalance, with 6,607 schools carrying 11,733 teachers in excess of sanctioned strength even as 29,116 schools face a shortage of nearly 50 percent, and a rural-urban disparity of 28.32 percent versus 3.46 percent.

It linked this mismanagement to a fall in Class X pass percentages, from 67.74 percent in 2018-19 to 38.53 percent in 2021-22.

The petitioner also flagged that only ₹35.71 crore of a ₹165.09 crore budget for teacher training was utilised, and that 14 officials remained illegally attached to other departments for periods of up to 20 years, drawing salaries of ₹3.27 crore from the Education Department.

Hence, the petitioner said that there should be directions for immediate deployment of teachers to the 1,895 schools besides a time-bound rationalisation policy to address the vacancy gap.

The petitioner appeared in person.

Advocate Anubhav Jain appeared for State.

Assistant Solicitor General Sunil Kumar Jain along with advocate Dev Sharma appeared for Union of India.