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Writ Petition No.28589 of 2024N.ANAND VENKATESH, JThis writ petition has been filed challenging the proceedings ofthe third respondent dated 05.09.2024 and for a consequential direction to the respondents to allocate duty to the petitioner only to the hearing impaired students studying in the fifth respondent school and to consider the request made by the petitioner to grant/sanction leave to the petitioner on Government holidays.for petner kavitha adv argued

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Writ Petition No.28589 of 2024
N.ANAND VENKATESH, J
This writ petition has been filed challenging the proceedings of
the third respondent dated 05.09.2024 and for a consequential direction to the respondents to allocate duty to the petitioner only to the hearing impaired students studying in the fifth respondent school and to consider the request made by the petitioner to grant/sanction leave to the petitioner on Government holidays.

  1. The case of the petitioner is that she applied for the post of Deputy Warden pursuant to the recruitment notification issued by the first respondent. The petitioner was selected and appointed through proceedings dated 02.03.2016 and she was posted in the fifth respondent school. The further case of the petitioner is that there are totally 48 students studying in the fifth respondent school under the category of hearing impaired and 35 students are studying under the category of visually impaired.
  2. The grievance of the petitioner is that earlier, one S.Baskar
    was taking care of the students, who are visually impaired in the fifth respondent school. He was transferred by the third respondent through the impugned proceedings dated 05.09.2024 and the petitioner was given additional charge to take care of the 35 visually impaired students in the fifth respondent school. The representation made by the petitioner was also not considered. It is under these circumstances, the present writ petition came to be filed before this Court.
  3. When the matter came up for hearing on 26.09.2024, this Court, on considering the grievance expressed by the petitioner and the materials before this Court, directed the respondents to take immediate steps to look out for an alternate person to take care of the visually impaired students in the fifth respondent school. The matter was directed to listed for hearing today.
  4. When the matter was taken up for hearing today, learned Additional Government Pleader appearing on behalf of respondents produced the proceedings of the third respondent dated 02.10.2024. On going through the same, it is seen that one V.Anandan has now been transferred from Sivagangai and he had been brought to the fifth respondent school to take care of the visually impaired students. Consequential orders were also passed by relieving the petitioner from the additional charge pursuant to the impugned proceedings dated 05.09.2024.
  5. In the light of the above development, the main grievance
    expressed by the petitioner had been redressed. However, there is an other limb of the grievance, which is yet to be addressed. According to the petitioner, she is working in the fifth respondent school and she is on duty all the 24 hours and all the 365 days and she has not been given any break/leave even during the Government holidays. The petitioner has been performing this job from the year 2016 onwards. The petitioner has also made a representation in this regard on 13.09.2024. This grievance expressed by the petitioner is a very genuine grievance, which has to be addressed by third respondent. No one can be engaged in duty for all 365 days without giving a break. This is more so for persons, who are handling differently abled children and the petitioner has been handling children, who are falling under the category of hearing impaired. Hence, there should be some mechanism to give a break to the petitioner at least during the Government holidays. If the petitioner is asked to be on duty for all 365 days, it will result in mental fatigue, which will further result in loss of efficiency on the part of the petitioner. Hence, giving leave/ break to the petitioner will only improve the efficiency level of the petitioner. This has to be necessarily considered.
  6. It is seen that the impugned proceedings of the third
    respondent dated 05.09.2024 has now been withdrawn. There shall be a direction to third respondent to deal with the representation made by the petitioner on 13.09.2024 in the light of the observations made by this Court in this writ petition. A decision shall be taken within a period of two (2) weeks from the date of receipt of a copy of this order.
  7. Learned counsel for petitioner has raised a larger issue in
    this writ petition. Dealing with differently abled persons comes with its own challenges. The Government must fix the Deputy Warden : Disabled
    Children ratio in the same way it has fixed in the regular schools as teacher : student ratio. One Deputy Warden cannot be made to handle a large group of differently abled children continuously. If a Deputy Warden is made to stay with these children for all the 365 days without a break, it has its own consequences on the person, who is working as Deputy Warden and this Court should not loose sight of the fact that even the Deputy Warden has a family to take care. Therefore, the Government must show more sensitivity in these issues. In view of the same, the Government has to come up with a policy decision to take up this larger issue and fix the Deputy Warden : Differently Abled Children ratio and allocate sufficient Deputy Wardens to take care of the children. Thus, the Deputy Warden should also be given leave like all other teachers and in which case, the alternate person will take care of the children. On the one hand, the differently abled children will have to be handled properly by a trained person and such person must be available at any given point of time and on the other hand, the interest of the Deputy Warden must also be taken into consideration. Such balancing of rights will enure to the benefit of both the Deputy Warden and differently abled children.
    N.ANAND VENKATESH, J
  8. The above observations made by this Court shall be
    considered by respondents 1 to 3 and an affidavit shall be filed before this Court stating the future course of action that is going to be taken in this regard.
    Post this writ petition under the caption ‘for passing further
    orders’ on 24.10.2024.
    03.10.2024 Note : Issue order copy by 04.10.2024
    gm
    Writ Petition No.28589 of 2024

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