The Bihar government postponed its newly framed transfer policy for 5.75 lakh schoolteachers working across 85,000 schools in the state after Patna High Court imposed a stay on it on Tuesday.

Education minister Sunil Kumar said that a new policy would be formulated, duly considering the suggestions and objections raised over the latest one stayed by the high court. Around 1.2 lakh teachers had already applied for their transfers before the court put the brakes.

“Chief minister Nitish Kumar has given directions on the teachers’ transfer policy. We have decided to postpone it with immediate effect. The teachers will stay wherever they are posted as of now. We will make changes in the policy as needed,” Sunil told reporters.

The education minister added that there were some practical difficulties in the transfer policy brought forth last month. The teachers and their associations had conveyed their reservations.

“The teachers will now be transferred after the five attempts for the competency test meant for the contractual teachers to get ‘government employee status’ are over. This will provide an opportunity for all of them. We will keep the interests of the teachers in mind while formulating the new policy,” Sunil further said at a hurriedly called media conference following the high court order.

At present, there are three types of teachers — regular teachers, contractual teachers appointed by local self-governing bodies in the rural and urban areas, and those recruited through examinations conducted by the Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) — working in the government schools in the state.

A fourth category of “special teachers” would be formed for the contractual teachers who pass the competency test.

Earlier in the day, the bench of Justice Prabhat Kumar Singh, while hearing a civil writ (17441/2024) filed by a group of 13 teachers from Aurangabad district, stayed the transfer policy on the date of admission of the case.

While imposing a stay on the policy, Justice Singh gave three weeks’ time to the Bihar government to clarify its stand and decided to hear the case next on January 21, 2025.

The petitioners in the case had told the court that the state government was giving posting choices under the new transfer policy in an arbitrary manner, and was misleading them. Also, it was not receiving their applications according to the rules.

The petitioners also opposed the way male teachers were asked to give options of 10 sub-divisions, except their home sub-division, for transfer and postings, while the female teachers were asked to submit choices of panchayats, barring their home panchayat.

The Bihar State Primary Teachers’ Association president and Bihar Shikshak Ekta Manch convener Pradeep Kumar Pappu hailed the stay on the transfer policy as a big win for the teachers.

Bihar had witnessed the mass transfer of government school teachers in 2023, posting them in schools that were hundreds of kilometres away. It created turmoil in their family life and led to much resentment among them.

Sources said that the Nitish-led NDA government noticed that it had led to the loss of votes during the Lok Sabha elections held earlier this year.

With the Assembly elections due around September–October 2025, the government decided not to risk the alienation of the teachers any further and formulated a transfer policy to pacify them.