MANAGER FATIMA MATA COLLEGE KOLLAM Vs. STATE OF KERALA REPRESENTED BY THE CHIEF SECRETARY TO GOVERNMENT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Heard the learned counsel for the petitioners and the learned Government Pleader.

(2.) The issue raised in these writ petitions is with regard to the payment due to the persons, who had been engaged as Guest Lecturers in a private college managed by the petitioner in W.P.(C).No.12985/16. W.P.(C).No.12985/16 is filed by the Manager of the college challenging Exhibits P7 to P10 orders to the extent they denied salary from the Government fund to the Guest Lecturers appointed by the petitioner before 1.11.2013. The petitioner seeks a further declaration that the Guest Lecturers appointed before 1.11.2013 are also entitled to salary from the Government from the date of their initial appointment.

(3.) The petitioners in W.P.(C).Nos.13790 and 13796 of 2016 are Guest Lecturers appointed in the college before 1.11.2013. They seek payment of salary from the date of their initial appointment till the date of their impanelment in the list of Guest Lecturers maintained by the Deputy Director of Collegiate Education. The petitioners contend that the positive direction that appointments of Guest Lecturers are to be made only from the panel prepared by the Deputy Director of Collegiate Education had been issued on 1.11.2013 and the Guest Lecturers who were appointed before that date were also entitled to salary from the Government. It is contended that after the direction was issued on 1.11.2013, the Guest Lecturers appointed by the Manager had been included in the panel prepared by the Deputy Director of Collegiate Education and they had also been paid salary after such inclusion. It is contended by the Management that in the case of all appointments made from outside the panel after 1.11.2013 also, orders had been issued directing impanelment of such appointees in the panel and payment of salary to them from the Government fund with effect from the date of their initial engagement. In the above circumstances, it is contended that non-disbursement of salary from the Government fund to Guest Lecturers appointed before 1.11.2013 when there were no directions issued to the Management to make appointments only from the panel prepared by the Deputy Director of Collegiate Education is discriminatory and violative of principles of natural justice.