R USHARANI Vs. DIRECTOR OF SCHOOL EDUCATION

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Counsel for the appellant submits that B.Ed. Degree is different from Teachers Training Certificate (TTC) and is not to be regarded as a degree which is higher than TTC and for that proposition relied upon the judgment of the Supreme Court in the case of P.M. Latha vs. State of Kerala, (2003) 3 SCC 541 as also the judgment of the Full Bench of the Bombay High Court in the case of Jayashree Sunil Chavan vs. The State of Maharashtra, AIR 2000 Bom 394, which was upheld by the Supreme Court, besides relying upon a judgment of the Division Bench of this Court in the case of Secretary & Correspondent, Uswathan Hasana Oriental (Arabic) Girls Hr. Sec. School vs. State of Tamil Nadu, 2002 WLR 173, which is also to the same effect. All these judgments were in the context of recruitment made in accordance with the rules framed by the Government which were binding on the aided institutions for whom the recruitment was being made.

(2.) In this case, we are not concerned with the aided institution, but with a self-financed private school which had advertised in a daily that it requires a Secondary Grade Teacher possessing B.Ed. The appellant before us although holding a degree of M.A in Tamil, Pulavar certificate, as also TTC, did not possess B.Ed. Degree. She however, at her request, was given time to complete B.Ed. In the order of appointment given to her it was stipulated that she should acquire B.Ed within a period of one year. She accepted the appointment subject to that condition. Thereafter she sought extension of time for fulfilling that condition on the ground that she had difficulty in doing that course through correspondence education, as B.Ed degree was no longer being offered through correspondence.

(3.) At her request the management of the school having extended the time and after finding that even after expiry of that period, she had not acquired the qualification, proceeded to terminate her services on the ground that she had failed to acquire B.Ed., which was a degree which a prospective applicant was required to possess in terms of the advertisement which had been made and to which she had responded.