THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: “If there are Christian employees in your school, who draw government salary but do not pay income tax, a report of the same should be submitted within two days to the office of the Deputy Director of Education.”

This was a strange directive that the state syllabus schools under Areacode educational sub-district in Malappuram received recently from the Assistant Educational Officer (AEO)-in charge. Confusion prevailed as panic-stricken heads of schools rang up higher officials of the department to enquire if the directive, that could create communal polarisation, was genuine. To their surprise, the communication dated April 22 was issued by senior superintendent Shahina A K who is presently holding the charge of AEO, Areacode.

The letter, accessed by TNIE, cited a directive from the Deputy Director of Education (DDE), Malappuram, as the basis for the inquiry. 

The root of the controversial inquiry lay in a complaint filed by a Kozhikode native Abdul Kalam K to the Director of General Education (DGE) in November last year. The complaint to the internal vigilance wing of the directorate alleged that Christian employees were drawing salary from the government but were not paying income tax. 

According to sources, income tax exemptions granted to Catholic clergy, which were struck down by the Madras High Court in 2019 and endorsed by the Supreme Court last year, could have prompted the complaint. Soon, the internal vigilance wing shot off letters to all 14 DDEs across the state on February 13 seeking details of such employees. Most of the DDEs, in turn, passed on the directives to the AEOs under their jurisdiction.

“It was the DDE of Alappuzha who alerted the DGE’s office about the damage potential of the query. The DGE office soon issued a letter on February 20, directing all the DDEs to put the process on hold until further directives,” said a senior official of the General Education Department. However, the communication had already been passed on to AEOs by that time. 

When contacted, Malappuram DDE-in charge Geetha Kumari said her office as well as the Areacode AEO’s office were not aware of the revised communication from the directorate to put the process on hold.