R DURAISAMY Vs. DIRECTOR OF SCHOOL EDUCATON

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioners before us were appointed as teachers in the Panchayat Union Elementary Schools under the Tamil Nadu Elementary Education Subordinate Service. When they were working in such Middle Schools, they were upgraded as High Schools and the petitioners were transferred to the High Schools. The petitioners were absorbed in High School Service but some of the teachers, who were stated to be junior to the petitioners and who continued in the Panchayat Union Elementary Schools, were subsequently promoted as Head Masters in the primary and the Middle Schools run by the Panchayat Union. They were allowed to draw their pay in the scale of Rs. 2,000-3,200 from 1-6-1988 pursuant to G.O. issued on 5-10-1990. The result was that they started getting more pay than the petitioners did.

(2.) In those circumstances the petitioners and others approached the Tamil Nadu Administrative Tribunal (hereinafter referred to as the Tribunal) for fixation of their pay on par with the Head Masters in the Panchayat Union Schools. They contended that, apart from the unfairness of being paid lesser salary, had they continued in the Panchayat Union schools, they would have become Head Masters in the Primary/Middle Schools on the basis of their seniority and thus would have been entitled to draw such higher scales. The Tribunal relied upon certain Government orders and held that the teachers of the elementary and a Middle Schools and the teachers of the High Schools constituted one service and, therefore, granted relief to them in some of the applications filed before it. But in subsequent applications filed before the Tribunal, the matter was reviewed and the cases of the petitioners were distinguished and their claim has been rejected. It is against this order that the petitioners have now come before this Court.

(3.) It is clear from the narration made above that the petitioners had been working in the High Schools on the upgradation of the Middle Schools to High Schools. If they were really aggrieved, they should have chosen to get back to their parent schools and should have derived the benefits as were being given to those who continued in the Panchayat Union schools. On their absorption in the High Schools, tthey ceased to be a part of the cadre of teachers serving in schools run by the Panchayat Union. The protection granted by the Government on which the Tribunal had earlier placed reliance was only in relation to pay and awarding of selection or special grade and that would not constitute our single cadre. Therefore, the claim made by the petitioners is unfounded .