Kalma row: NGO calls teacher’s sacking illegal, seeks her return

Hyderabad: The Society for Integrated Progress And Human Empowerment (SIPAHE) has written to the management of Success The School in Saidabad, contesting the termination of teacher Shaik Aisha Parveen and demanding she be reinstated with back wages.

In a representation dated July 20, Hina Ansari, Joint Secretary and Chairperson of SIPAHE’s Educational Rights Committee, said the school sacked Parveen on July 15 without issuing a show cause notice or holding an inquiry, calling the move a violation of Section 79(1) of the Telangana Education Act, 1982, and Rule 12 of the Telangana Educational Institutions Rules, 1993. The letter argues that the termination is void from the outset since it bypassed due process and the principle of a fair hearing.

Parveen’s dismissal followed a row that began when a Class 2 student’s diary showed she had been asked to read the Kalma and Surah Fatiha under the subject “Deeniyath.”

The entry, made on July 15, came days after a similar note on July 11 that the teacher herself had crossed out. The school management said Deeniyath, or Islamic studies, is taught to its largely Muslim student body but was never meant for non-Muslim children, and described the episode as an inadvertent error, even as it went ahead and terminated Parveen’s services and barred her from future employment across all Success Group institutions.

SIPAHE’s letter leans on this “inadvertent mistake” framing to argue there was no criminal intent behind the entry, and says permanently barring Parveen from the group’s institutions is defamatory and violates her right to livelihood under Article 21.

It has demanded the school either reinstate her with full back wages or convert the termination into a voluntary resignation, clear her pending salary, and pay Rs 50,000 in compensation within seven days, failing which it plans to move the Educational Tribunal, the Telangana High Court, and the District Educational Officer.

The case has since drawn wider attention. An FIR was registered against Parveen after the student’s aunt filed a complaint, and the NHRC issued a notice to the Telangana government seeking a response. The student’s parents later withdrew their complaint after accepting an apology from the school, though the NHRC notice remains independent of that resolution.