Management and Teachers of Ahmedabad School Fined Following Staff Dharna Over Salary Dispute
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On August 11, 2025, close to 100 teaching and non-teaching staff at Diwan Ballubhai High School, covering its Maninagar and Paldi branches in Ahmedabad, held a dharna on campus, boycotting teaching duties to protest what they claimed was discriminatory treatment in annual salary increments.
The protest disrupted academic routines. As a result, the District Education Officer (DEO) of Ahmedabad (city), Rohit Chaudhary, issued show-cause notices to both the school’s management and the protesting teachers the same day, citing a violation of the Right to Education (RTE) Act, 2009..
By August 14, the DEO had enforced penalties: the management was fined ₹10,000, with the directive to deposit this amount within three days, while the teachers were assigned one day of unpaid leave, effectively deducting a day’s salary. The order applies across both schools’ branches (Kankaria, Paldi) and mediums (Gujarati and English), with the principals instructed to report compliance back to the DEO within the same timeframe.
DEO Chaudhary emphasized that the unapproved protest put students’ academic progress at risk and noted the management’s failure to resolve the issue or inform the DEO office. While the management defended its stance by highlighting that it introduced a performance-based increment system this year—replacing the earlier flat increment—this did not exempt them from accountability.
This incident underscores the stringent accountability mechanisms schools in Ahmedabad must adhere to under the RTE Act, affirming that any disruption to student learning—even tied to internal staff grievances—is taken seriously by authorities.
