Why no transfer within one's home district? High Court issues rule over MPO teachers' transfer policy clause
The High Court has issued a rule questioning the validity of clause 3.4 of the transfer policy for MPO-enlisted teachers regarding transfers within a district.
After the preliminary hearing of a writ filed by 13 teachers, a High Court bench of Justice J B M Hasan and Justice Aziz Ahmad Bhuiyan issued the rule on Monday (November 9).
Lawyer Humayun Kabir Pallab appeared for the petitioners in court.
Lawyer Humayun Kabir Pallab said the government formulated a policy in 2026 regarding the transfer of teachers working in MPO-enlisted schools and colleges.
Clause 3.4 of that policy states that a teacher of an MPO-enlisted college or school can apply for transfer only from one district to their home district.
He said the policy contains no provision for teachers working in different institutions within a district to transfer from one institution to another, or from one upazila to another.
The lawyer said the opportunity for transfer within one's home district, which should have existed, has been closed off by this policy.
A district has many upazilas, and distances run into hundreds of kilometres. It may happen that a teacher works at an institution several hundred kilometres away from their own home.
He said that because of this 2026 transfer policy, teachers cannot apply for transfer from one school to another.
Lawyer Humayun Kabir Pallab said that in Bangladesh now, about 85,000 teaching posts in MPO-enlisted schools and colleges are vacant, while only around 13,000 people have applied for them.
A writ petition was filed on the basis of the application of 13 teachers. In that writ petition, the restriction in the 2026 transfer policy—that within a district, transfer from one school to another cannot be done in any way, nor applied for—has been challenged.
After the hearing, the court issued a rule asking why the clause (3.4) should not be declared illegal and unconstitutional, and directed the respondents to reply within the next four weeks, said lawyer Humayun Kabir Pallab.
