SONICA JAGGI Vs. LT GOVERNOR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner has sought a direction to respondent Nos.4 to 6, The Manager, The Principal and The Chairman of Shakti Mandir Premwati Public School to refix the salary of petitioner in the proper pay scale of Physical Education teacher as provided by the recruitment rules and in accordance with Section 10 of Delhi School Education Act.

(2.) A Division Bench of this Court in Kathuria Public School and Ors Vs. Director of Education and Anr, 2005 VI AD (Delhi) 893 relying on T. M. A. Pai Foundation Vs. State of Karnataka, AIR 2003 SC 345 had held that it is advisable that the specialized Tribunal constituted should look after the legal matters relating to hearing of grievances of teachers and employees. The Division Bench relying on T.M.A.Pai Foundation (Supra) had held that specialized Tribunal should hear any grievance of the teacher. It was held in Kathuria Public School and Ors (Supra) that no restriction has been placed on the scope and ambit of the consideration of the grievances of the teacher or employee by the Tribunal and consequently the Tribunal should be able to hear all the grievances including in respect of suspension of a teacher or an employee and, therefore, the Tribunal constituted under the Delhi School Education Act should be able to hear all the grievances of the staff and teachers and not necessarily as restricted to in sub Section (2) of Section 8 of the said Act. The Division Bench in para 42 at page 910 had held as under:-

(3.) Consequently, though this Court will have jurisdiction under Article 226 of the Constitution of India for the relief claimed by the petitioner, however, the petitioner must exhaust the alternative remedy available to her to approach the tribunal constituted under the Delhi School Education Act, 1973 for her grievance regarding re-fixing of her salary as provided in the recruitment rules.