Setting aside a government order to pay salaries and allowances of teaching and non-teaching faculty members of a local school, bypassing the management, the Madras High Court has said "authorities cannot allow themselves to be used as tools by the staff to bring the management to their knees."
"The case on hand is a standing testimony to the fact that if the Management and the staff of an educational institution are at loggerheads, the stream of education can get polluted to a frustrating level," Justice V Ramasubramanian said.
Allowing a petition from the M Ct Muthiah School represented by its administrator, the judge directed the District Educational Officer (DEO) to release the staff grant and maintenance grant to the management of the school.
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The judge said it was clear from the scheme of the "TN Recognized Private Schools (Regulation) Act" that the disbursement of the grant to the secretary of the school was the rule and the direct disbursement to the teachers was an exception, to be followed under special circumstances.
The appellate authority committed a grave error in thinking that the association of teaching and non-teaching staff had a right to dictate things, the judge said.
It has never been the claim of the teaching and non-teaching staff that their pay and allowances were not properly disbursed. Right from 2011, the only grievance of the staff was that the management wanted to enforce discipline, the judge added.
The judge said trouble started brewing in the institution from 2011, with the management and staff trading allegations against each other.
