[BREAKING] Supreme Court stays Kerala High Court order barring aided school teachers from contesting polls

The Supreme Court on Thursday stayed a February 2021 order of Kerala High Court which had barred aided school teachers and non-teaching staff from contesting Assembly elections..Senior Advocate V Giri, appearing for the appellant, submitted that the deadline for submission of nomination forms is tomorrow and the High Court judgment needs to be stayed. .A Bench of Chief Justice of India, SA Bobde and Justices AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian issued notice and stayed the order. .Kerala High Court had passed the ruling on a few public interest litigation petitions seeking to prevent aided school teachers from contesting Assembly elections. The petitioners contended that though government teachers are barred from participating in political activities, including contesting Assembly elections, there was no such prohibition on aided school teachers..High Court has held inter alia that a teacher of an aided educational institution, within the State of Kerala, is a person holding an 'office of profit' under the Government of the State of Kerala and is thus disqualified from contesting in the elections to either the Parliament or the State Legislature..The lead plea by AN Anurag states the post of teacher in an aided educational institution in Kerala cannot be considered to be an office of profit as "the appointment and termination of aided school teachers is done by the Manager of the school and not by the State Government.The plea also states that the service conditions of aided school teachers are entirely different from that of Government school teachers..Allowing the petitions, the Bench had held that Section 2 (IV) of the Legislative Assembly (Removal of Disqualifications) Act, 1951 is unconstitutional.The said provision states that employees of non-governmental educational institutions would not be disqualified for being chosen as a member of the Assembly by reason only of his/her holding any office in any non-governmental educational institutions..The petitioners had pointed out that aided schools teachers were granted political rights as per the Kerala Education Act (KEA), 1951. It was contended that with the subsequent development in the education sector such as the Right to Education Act etc., the classification of teachers had become unreasonable. Besides, political activities by teachers and their contesting the Assembly elections would also affect the quality of education, it was submitted. .The petitioners contended that aided school teachers could not be given different treatment as the Right to Education Act is intended to ensure quality education both in government and aided schools..The plea says that assuming if the office of an aided school teacher is an office of profit for the purpose of Article 191(1)(a) of the Constitution, "it was specifically excluded by the Legislative Assembly (Removal of Disqualifications) Act, 1951 enacted by the Government of Kerala in exercise of the power under Article 191 read with Article 238 of the Constitution.".Senior Advocate V Giri appeared for the lead petitioner and the plea was filed by Advocate Krishna Dev Jagarlamudi..The other connected plea was filed by Saleem Madavoor Alias Muhammad Salim who stated that the impugned judgment is completely erroneous in as much as it seeks to judicially prescribe an additional ground of disqualification being ‘teachers of aided schools’ from participating in elections..The plea by Salim was filed by Advocate Javedur Rehman.