Teachers gets reprieve from HC

The Madras High Court today allowed a batch of petitions regarding eligibility of scale of pay of Secondary Grade Teachers in High Schools and Higher Secondary Schools on par with the scale of pay of Primary School Head Masters.
The Division Bench Comprising Justice V Dhanapalan and Justice Pushpa Sathyanarayana in their order while referring to a Supreme Court Judgment and the High Court Judgments in its order said "the views taken by the earlier benches of this Court for extending the benefit to the employees therein are equally applicable to these cases as these individuals also are similarly placed to those in the earlier litigations."

The matter relates to an appeal filed by about 400 teachers against the order of a single Judge who rejected their plea claiming the Selection Grade and Special Grade pay of a Primary School Headmaster on completion of 10 years and 20 years of service with effect from June 1, 1988.
The bench while quoting a recent decision of Supreme Court allowed the petitions but as regards the arrears for the period taken by the individuals in these matters said "we are not inclined to pass any orders. Therefore we leave it open to the state to take a decision as to the period of entitlement with regard to the said issue in accordance with law."

The claim of the appellants in these appeals are that they are entitled to Selection Grade and Special Grade pay as that of Primary School Headmasters as per Government order dated March 22,1993 issued by Finance(Pay Cell) Department.
When a policy decision has been taken by Government to extend certain benefits the same to be extended to the eligible persons as per the scheme.
The bench while rejecting the arguments of the Government that the petitioners have approached belatedly in its order said "while implementing orders of this court perhaps for the applicants before the court or those not before the court the benefits may be extended by the state itself.

Normally the benefits of the scheme could be extended to the eligible persons. Therefore we are of the considered opinion that mere latches on the part of the petitioners would not deprive the benefits as per the schemes, the bench said.