The Madhya Pradesh High Court has intervened in a challenge by government school teachers to the mandatory attendance marking through the mobile application named “Humare Shikshak”. The dispute centres on the state government’s directive requiring teachers in government schools to mark their attendance using the app, and concerns raised by the teachers about training, infrastructure (including network availability) and practical difficulties in using the app. The Court directed both the State and the teachers to file affidavits. The teachers must individually indicate in their affidavits whether they received any training to use the attendance app, whether they participated in such training, and whether they attempted to mark attendance through the app. They are further required to state whether they were unable to mark attendance because of lack of network or other technical deficiencies. Similarly, the state is to verify whether training was provided to teachers for using the app and whether requisite infrastructure in terms of network connectivity, smartphones or equivalent devices was available in the schools. These orders reflect the Court’s intention to ensure that before any punitive action is taken or non-compliance is sanctioned, the prerequisites of effective implementation—training and appropriate infrastructure—must be demonstrated.
The Court’s direction recognises that accountability mechanisms such as digital attendance are valid but emphasises that fairness requires that the apparatus be operational and teachers be suitably enabled. In doing so, the High Court maintained that the imposition of app-based attendance cannot assume automatic compliance where network issues, lack of training or infrastructure limitations hinder the marking of attendance. The decision does not stay the application of the attendance system, but rather places the burden on the State to show that teachers were given support and that conditions for marking attendance were met, and places responsibility on teachers to affirm their attempts, or inability, to mark attendance via the app. The judgment signals that while digitisation of administrative processes is permissible and may serve the goal of enhancing teacher accountability and attendance tracking, the prerequisites of infrastructural readiness and reasonable access cannot be ignored.
The matter continues before the High Court with compliance affidavits expected from both teachers and the State. The outcome will likely determine whether any remedial measures are required or whether enforcement of the app-based attendance system can proceed without alteration. The Court’s approach demonstrates a balance — acknowledging the policy objective of digital monitoring of teacher attendance, while safeguarding that teachers not be unduly penalised if they were prevented from marking attendance owing to infrastructural gaps or lack of training.
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