SIVASANKARAN Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) There are altogether eighty three petitioners in these writ petitions. All of them were working as high school assistants (language) in Government high schools at the time of institution of these writ petitions. The common grievance with which they have come to this court is that their legitimate claims for fixation of their pay in the higher scale of Rs. 210-325 with effect from the dates on which they completed twelve years of service as required by G. O. MS. 462/68/Edn. dated 26-10-1968 and for payment of the arrears of salary consequent on such fixation have been illegally and arbitrarily denied to them by the orders Exts. PI3 to P15 passed by respondents Nos. 1 to 3, namely, the State of Kerala, the Director of Public Instruction, Trivandrum and the Regional Deputy Directors of Public Instruction, Kozhikode and Ernakulam respectively inspite of clear and specific directions having been issued by the High Court in the judgments rendered in the earlier writ petitions filed by them, namely, O.P. Nos. 511 of 1973, 2875 of 1974, 5638 of 1970 and 2030 of 1974. These teachers have been agitating for a just settlement of their claims for the past nearly eight years and in respect of most of them this is the third occasion on which they have had to approach this court seeking relief under Art.226 of the Constitution in respect of the identical matter.

(2.) It was agreed before us that O.P.No. 4950 of 1976 may be treated as the leading case and that the facts of that case need alone be referred to in the judgment since they are plainly illustrative of all the facts of the remaining cases. Most of the relevant documents have been produced and marked as exhibits in O. P. No. 4950 of 1976 and they will hereinafter be referred to on the basis of their exhibit marking in the said writ petition.

(3.) All the writ petitioners are working in Government schools in the erstwhile Malabar District. Many of them started their careers as Grade II language teachers in the schools run by the Malabar District Board and by some other Municipal Councils in the Malabar area. On those schools having been taken over by the Government with effect from 1-10-1957 they were all absorbed into the service of the Kerala Government with the benefit of continuity of service. A little prior thereto the Government had passed orders as per a G. O. dated 28th March, 1957 effecting a unification of pay scales of non gazetted officers of the different departments of Government who were allotted to the State of Kerala from the erstwhile T. C. State as well as from the composite Madras State. Ext. P1 is a copy of the said order containing also an extract from the schedule attached thereto relating to the education department. A pay revision was subsequently effected by the State Government as per the G. O. Ext. P2 dated 28-2-1958, as a result of which the unified scale of Rs. 55-150 which had been sanctioned to language teachers under Ext. P3 was revised and refixed as Rs. 80-165.