Atter Singh is in utter shock. The drawing teacher posted at Government Senior Secondary School, Ronhat, in Sirmaur district of Himachal Pradesh has been suspended over spelling mistakes he made while writing a cheque for Rs 7,616. In words he wrote: “Saven Thursday Six Harendra Sixty”. The figures did not add up, and the cheque issued on September 25, 2025, went viral on social media. The teacher was handed out the suspension order on October 4, 2025, and was told now “his headquarters is fixed at Govt Sec School, Haripurdhar, in Sirmaur district during the suspension”. The Deputy Director, School Education (Elementary), Sirmaur, Rajeev Thakur, who issued the suspension order, told The Indian Express over the phone, “Spelling mistakes are usually ignored and the culprit is let off with a warning. But in this case, words were changed. Thousand was turned into Thursday and hundred into Harendra. Hence, this action.” Interestingly, the suspension order the teacher received is full of mistakes. Savour a few: Principal is spelt as princpal, Sirmaur as Sirmour, spellings as spelling, and education as educatioin. On this, Thakur said, “There was a time constraint. We issued the notice in haste. I admit the mistakes. But these are spelling and typing errors. I will find out how these mistakes crept in.” Significantly, Himachal was declared a fully literate state on International Literacy Day on September 8 this year. It became the fifth entrant to the elite club of Tripura, Mizoram, Goa and Ladakh. Recently, in a communication issued by the state health department, Health Minister Dr (Col) Dhani Ram Shandil’s son Dr (Col) Sanjay Shandil was mentioned as his “accomplice”. According to the communication issued by the health secretary and marked to the secretary, Ministry of External Affairs, a delegation led by the minister was to visit London and France from October 2 to 11 to “explore innovative healthcare model, medical advancements, and policy frameworks so as to support the implementation of best practices in Himachal Pradesh healthcare sector”. Later, however, the visit was postponed after a row erupted over the minister’s son inclusion in the delegation. In September 2021, a tweet by the Information and Public Relations Department of the state government had misspelt the name of the then chief minister Jai Ram Thakur as Jao Ram Thakur.
