Denied transfer, HIV+ govt teacher suffers daily Surat-Vadodara trip

In an order that has given some relief to a woman teacher infected by the deadly HIV, Justice KS Jhaveri of the Gujarat high court has directed the state government to decide on her transfer to Vadodara. The young teacher, who is a Vidya Sahayak at a primary school run by the Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC), had sought a transfer to Vadodara so that she could stay with her mother.

The teacher, who has twin daughters, moved the Gujarat high court when the state government paid no heed to her request for transfer to Vadodara. After the high court's order, however, the state government agreed to treat her request as a 'special case'.

As per the case details, 32-year-old Sarita Anand (name changed) was married to a man from Surat. She later joined the primary school run by the SMC as a Vidya Sahayak. She is now a permanent teacher in the school. Last year, she applied to the SMC's administrator of schools for a transfer to Vadodara, stating that she was carrying the AIDS virus.

In the letter to the SMC administrator of schools, she also mentioned that she was living in Surat all by herself as her husband had divorced her three years back. She had further stated that she had to look after two minor daughters, and her widowed mother lived alone in Vadodara.  She had further stated in her application that she had shifted to Vadodara because of her problems and had been commuting between the two cities daily to attend to her duties at the school. She said she was under the treatment of a Vadodara-based doctor.

The SMC schools administrator, however, refused to transfer her as there is no provision of the education department that allows for inter-district transfers. 

She then made a representation to the education department but nothing came of the representation.

Then she moved the Gujarat high court with the plea that, in view of her poor health, she should be transferred to Vadodara.
Meanwhile, during the hearing of her petition itself, the state government agreed to treat Sarita’s case as a special one.

The state government’s lawyer said that her case would be considered as a special case and that if it found favour with the authorities, the petitioner would be transferred at the earliest possible opportunity.

He further said that the appropriate order in Sarita’s case would be issued so as to take effect as soon as the current SSC examinations were over.