J S KHANNA Vs. UNIVERSITY OF DELHI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) By this petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, 400 selection grade lecturers of various constituent and affiliated colleges of the University of Delhi seek twofold relief of retrospectivity of the revised scales of pay for readers of the University, made applicable to them, and voiding the purported abolition of the selection grade. The University of Delhi, the University Grants Commission and the Union of India are respondents, 1, 2 and 3 respectively.

(2.) . The University of Delhi is a statutory authority, created by the Delhi University Act, 1922, for short, the Act, and is one of the Central Universities mentioned in Entry 63 of List-1 in the VII Schedule to the Constitution. It functions under the Act, the statutes framed under Sections 28 and 29 of the Act, and the Ordinances made under Sections 30 and 31 of the Act and the Regulations made under Section 32 thereof. Section 2(a) of the Act defines the expression " college" as an institution maintained or admitted to its privillages by the University Sad includes affiliated college or a constituent college. "Affiliated college" is an institution recognised by the University in accordance with the provisions of the Act and statutes, while the "Constituent college" is an institution recognised as such by the Executive Council of the University in accordance with the provisions of the Act and statutes. Section 2(g) of the Act defines the expression "teachers" as including professors, readers, lecturers and other persons imparting instructions in the University or in any college or hall. The expression "teachers of the University" is defined by Section 2(h) of the Act as meaning persons appointed or recognised by the University for the purpose of imparting instructions in the University or in any college. Chapter IV of the Ordinances deals with teaching staff. Ordinance XI in this Chapter deals with "University appointed teachers", while Ordinance XII deals with the "College appointed teachers". According to Ordinance XI ( 1), teachers appointed by the University shall be in three "grades, i.e., professors, readers and lecturers" and shall be paid salaries on such scales as the Executive Council of the University may determine. The corresponding provision for scales of pay of college appointed teachers is Ordinance XII(1), in terms of which a whole time teacher is entitled to be paid "in the scales prescribed by the University for the various categories of its teachers". Ordinance XVIII, which appears in Chapter VII, dealing with the colleges and halls, inter-alia, provides in clause (8)(1) that "payment of salaries to teachers of colleges shall be in accordance with scales approved by the Government of India". While, the University functions as an autonomous statutory body, its funding is the responsibility of the Central Government. The University Grants Commission, which was set up under the University Grants Commission Act, 1956, for short, the Act of 1956, pursuant to entry No. 66 in List-1 of the VII Schedule of the Constitution of India, was charged with the duty of promotion and coordination of University education and determination and maintenance of standards of education in the various universities and its functions include determining from time to time the financial requirement of the various universities, and to give grants to them from its own funds or to procure it from the Central Government. The Commission is essentially an advisory body and, inter alia, advises the Central Government with regard to the maintenatace of educational standards, as also the Universities established by law in India.

(3.) . The "University appointed teachers" in the University of Delhi have throughout been in three grades, namely professors, readers and lecturers. Until the year 1948, there were two categories of teachers in the affiliated and constituent colleges of Delhi, namely, the principal and the lecturers. The principal had supervisory functions in addition to the teaching obligations. In the year 1948, the selection grade for the lecturers was introduced in the college of the University and the scale of pay prescribed by the University for the grade was the same as the scale of pay prescribed by the University for the University appointed teachers belonging to the grade of readers. This was an unusual feature of the colleges in Delhi and was, inter alia, intended to recruit and retain teachers of excellence in colleges. The University has since maintained a virtual parity in the scales of pay of the readers of the University and the senior grade lecturers in colleges. Qualifications and procedure for appointment of selection grade lecturers in colleges was prescribed by resolutions of the Executive Council of the University. Selection grade lecturers were in the beginning appointed on a selective basis out of the lecturers of the colleges by a Selection Committee duly constituted for the purpose and were appointed on the approval of the University. In course of time, specified posts of lecturers were designated as selection grade posts which were filled either by "promotion" of lecturers of colleges or by direct recruitment and some of the petitioners are direct recruits to the selection grade. The qualifications for appointment to the selection grade were higher than for appointment io the posts of ordinary lecturers in colleges. The selection grade lecturers of colleges have, in course of time, been accorded recognition as constituting a recruiting ground for appointment in the University as well as in the other universities as, professors, paper setters, examiners as also for teaching assignments in the University itself. That some of the selection grade teachers of yesteryears have distinguished themselves as eminent educationists reinforces the purpose of the introduction of this intermediate grade between lecturers and principals of colleges. The three categories of Principals, selection grade lecturers and lecturers of colleges, have, over the years been, by and large, considered parallel, if not equivalent, to the three grades of the University appointed teachers i.e., professors, readers and the lecturers.