NEW DELHI: The Madhya Pradesh high court has issued notice to the state government on a plea alleging that nearly 1,900 government schools in the state are running without a single teacher.A division bench of Acting Chief Justice Vivek Rusia and Justice Pradeep Mittal took up the case on July 14 and ordered notice to be issued to the respondents, making it returnable within four weeks, as per a report by LiveLaw.The plea was filed by advocate Saurabh Tripathi, who argued the case himself. It is based on a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General, which looked at 66,814 government schools in Madhya Pradesh between 2018 and March 2023. According to the plea, this audit found that 1,895 schools — including 1,379 that had students enrolled — had no teachers at all.The plea also says teachers have been posted unevenly across the state. It claims 435 schools with no students still had teachers assigned to them, while 128 teachers were sent to 320 schools that did not even have approved teaching posts. It further says that pass percentages in Class 10 fell by 67 per cent in 2018-19 and by 38 per cent in 2021-22.Citing a Dainik Bhaskar report from its Indore edition in April 2026, the plea also alleges that education officers in several districts, including Indore, Mandla and Sheopur, did not carry out school inspections as required.The plea additionally claims that 14 officials from the offices of District Education Officers, Block Education Officers and DIETs had been sent to work in other departments, while their salaries — around Rs 3.27 crore in total — kept being paid by the School Education Department. Calling this a violation of children’s right to education under the Constitution, the petitioner has asked the court to direct the state to appoint teachers in the 1,895 schools that currently have none, within a fixed timeline. He has also sought a high-level committee to look into how teachers have been assigned across schools.Taking note of the plea, the bench passed a short order directing that notice be sent to the state and other parties involved.“Issue notice to the respondents on payment of process fee within seven working day by RAD mode, notices be returnable within four weeks,” the court order reads.
