Emphasising that membership to the GSTA is a voluntary exercise, the Delhi High Court ruled that stipulating a condition that all the teachers, who did not wish to become members of the Government School Teachers Association (GSTA), shall give an explanation for the same in writing, is inappropriate.
The Court said that the teachers cannot be compelled to accept the membership of GSTA, and directed that all the teachers who have not accepted the membership of GSTA voluntarily and wish to withdraw the same, shall approach the Deputy Director of their respective Zones, who shall communicate and share the list of the teachers who have withdrawn their membership with the Returning Officer.
Thereafter, the Court ordered the Returning Officer to update the list of the members of the GSTA by deleting the names of all the teachers from the final list of membership who have withdrawn their membership. The Court also directed the Returning Officer to ensure that the membership fee is refunded to such teachers who have withdrawn their membership.
Calling it impractical to carry out the exercise of finalising the membership of the GSTA afresh, the Court cautioned the heads of the respective schools not to participate in any such activity of the GSTA in the future, and directed that the elections of the GSTA, which are to be held at present, shall be conducted based on the Membership List that is already finalised by the heads of the respective schools.
A Single Judge Bench of Justice Mini Pushkarna found that this Court vide order dated May 10, 2024, passed in W.P.(C) 6200/2024 and W.P.(C) 2101/2024, concerning the holding of elections of the GSTA, had categorically directed that the election process of the GSTA had to be concluded by October 2024, and that a General Body Meeting (GBM) of the GSTA would be called for the purposes of finalising the Membership List of the GSTA.
From perusal of the Articles of the Constitution of the GSTA, the Bench noted that it is the GSTA that deals with the issue of membership and subscription, and the Constitution of the GSTA does not, in any manner, envision or empower the heads of the schools or any Government agency to be involved in the matters relating to membership and subscription of the GSTA.
Accordingly, the Bench opined that the heads of the schools could not have been involved in finalising the Membership List of the GSTA or in collecting the membership fee on behalf of the GSTA.
Finding that a final Membership List was already forwarded by the respective heads of the schools to the Returning Officer, based on which the Election Notification dated September 15, 2025, for GSTA elections was issued by the Returning Officer, the Bench observed that rescinding the elections at this stage would be improper.
Accordingly, the Bench concluded that once the Returning Officer receives the communication from the Deputy Directors of the various Zones, containing the list of teachers who have withdrawn from the membership of the GSTA, the Returning Officer shall delete such teachers from the Membership List of the GSTA. Post deletion, the final Membership List for the purposes of holding the elections of the GSTA, at present, shall be considered.
Briefly, the petitions were filed on behalf of the Government School Teachers Association (GSTA) and the Loktantrik Adhyapak Manch (LAM), challenging the order issued by the Returning Officer for GSTA elections, whereby the entire election process of GSTA was rescinded ab initio, barely days before the scheduled polling date. The petitioners had therefore sought quashing of the said order and a direction for conducting the GSTA elections strictly in compliance with the Election Notification dated September 15, 2025.
Appearances:
Advocates Anand Awasthi, Chetanya Puri, Rishabh Jain, Puneet Dhawan, Snigdha Ganguly, Richa Kapoor, Udipti Chopra, and Aryan Prasad, for the Petitioner
Advocates Tushar Sannu and Parvin Bansal, for the Respondent
