The Dalit woman cook, who has been in the eye of a raging controversy, has been reappointed at the school, in Uttarakhand's Champawat district. She was sacked after dominant-caste students refused to eat mid-day meals cooked by her. Police have lodged a case against 31 people, six of which have been named in the FIR, for issuing threats and making casteist comments against her.

Demanding justice for her, the Uttarakhand SC/ST Commission had earlier threatened to approach the court if she is not reinstated immediately. She finally got her job back on December 31. Champawat's Chief Education Officer RC Purohit said, "The decision to reappoint her was taken on the basis of a government order which says that if a consensus is not reached in such cases, candidates from SC/ST or OBC communities should be given priority." 

A total of 21 out of the 26 members of the school management committee were present at the meeting but all of them were not of the same view. As a consensus could not evolve, the decision was taken on the basis of the government order. After the sacking of Sunita Devi, Purohit had earlier said there were "procedural lapses" in her appointment. Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami had ordered an inquiry into the case.