SRINAGAR: The Directorate of School Education Kashmir has issued a pre-termination notice to a teacher posted at a middle school in Rainawari, Srinagar, over prolonged unauthorised absence from duty, giving her 15 days to explain why action should not be initiated against her under the service rules.
According to the notice dated October 14, 2026, Shifa Zehra, a teacher at MS BD Sahib in the Rainawari zone, was appointed in the School Education Department in September 2012. She had initially obtained permission to visit Amritsar for personal reasons from March 7 to June 7, 2022, and was required to resume duty on June 8, 2022.
The notice states that she subsequently sought multiple extensions of leave on medical, personal and family grounds. While four months of extraordinary leave was sanctioned from December 6, 2022, to March 31, 2023, her subsequent requests for extensions were not sanctioned.
The Chief Education Officer, Srinagar, informed the Directorate in January 2025 that the teacher had not resumed duty and had submitted no further leave application after May 29, 2024, the notice states.
A show-cause notice was served on her on November 3, 2025. In her reply, sent by post from Amritsar, she cited family and medical exigencies, her minor children’s academic examinations and her husband’s professional posting in the city as reasons for her inability to report for duty.
She requested permission to resume duty on April 1, 2026. However, according to a subsequent communication from the Chief Education Officer dated June 10, 2026, she failed to join on the specified date and instead sought a further extension of extraordinary leave beyond March 31, 2026, on personal and family grounds.
The matter was examined by a designated committee at its meeting on August 17, 2026, which recommended issuing a pre-termination notice, according to the document.
The Directorate said her continued absence beyond the sanctioned leave period, without approval from the competent authority, attracted action under Articles 113 and 128 of the Jammu and Kashmir Civil Services Regulations, Volume I, of 1956.
Citing Article 128, which provides that absence without leave or beyond the sanctioned leave period involves loss of appointment, the Directorate has given the teacher 15 days from the date of issuance of the notice to submit her explanation.
The notice warns that failure to respond within the stipulated period will be treated as an indication that she has nothing to submit in her defence, after which action may be initiated under the applicable rules.
