Allahabad High Court calls prolonged KGBV teacher contracts forced labour

The Allahabad High Court ordered Uttar Pradesh to improve pay and service conditions for KGBV teachers. The ruling treats prolonged insecure contracts and inadequate remuneration as unconstitutional forced labour.Lucknow,Oct 30, 2026 11:10 ISTThe Allahabad High Court has ruled that keeping teachers at Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas on contracts for years without adequate pay or job security amounts to forced labour prohibited under Article 23 of the Constitution, news agency Press Trust of India reported.The court directed the Uttar Pradesh government to create or sanction posts for these teachers within four months and bring their service conditions on a par with those of regular teachers. It also ordered a monthly honorarium of Rs 17,000 for all KGBV teachers in the state until the government completes the process.Justice Pankaj Bhatia of the high court's Lucknow Bench said on Thursday that the honorarium paid to KGBV teachers was lower than the prescribed remuneration for semi-skilled workers. The judge described the practice of calling the payment an honorarium as a "cruel joke", according to PTI.The directions came while the court was allowing petitions filed by Archana Boodh and others. It asked the authorities to consider the petitioners and other similarly placed teachers for regularisation in accordance with the law, taking into account their educational qualifications and length of service. The court said the monthly honorarium of Rs 17,000 would be payable from the date of the judgment. It also directed the authorities to extend service-related protection to the teachers under Section 24(2) of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009.The Bench asked the government to frame service conditions for KGBV teachers in line with those applicable to regular teachers up to the intermediate level. It clarified that the directions would apply to all KGBV teachers in Uttar Pradesh, not only the petitioners. The government was also directed to periodically revise the teachers' honorarium or pay to align it with the salaries and allowances of teachers in government and aided schools in the state.On funding, the court said the Centre must contribute its agreed share of expenditure under the scheme. However, the Uttar Pradesh government could not refuse to comply with the directions on the ground that the Centre had not sanctioned the funds.The state may "pay first, recover later" after obtaining the Centre's share of the funds, the court added.The court observed that the KGBV scheme aims to provide quality education to disadvantaged sections, particularly girls. It said this objective could not be achieved by keeping teachers in prolonged employment insecurity and paying them inadequate remuneration for years. Such an arrangement was inconsistent with constitutional principles, it held.The Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya scheme, launched by the Centre in 2004, provides residential schooling and quality education to girls from disadvantaged and marginalised communities. The ruling requires Uttar Pradesh to improve the pay, job security and service conditions of all KGBV teachers in the state.- Ends