R SARAVANAKUMAR Vs. STATE OF TAMIL NADU

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioners have come forward with these Writ Petitions praying for a direction to the respondents to fix their scale of pay on par with P.G. Teachers based on the principle of 'equal pay for equal work'.

(2.) ACCORDING to the petitioners, Higher Secondary Education was introduced in the year 1978 and it consists of two categories namely General stream and Vocational stream. In the General stream, the Higher Secondary Education comprises of Maths Group, Science Group and Arts Group and the Vocational stream of education comprises of six areas viz. Commerce and Business, Engineering and Technology, Agriculture, Home Science, Health and Miscellaneous. The minimum educational qualification prescribed for General stream is a Post Graduate degree in the subject concerned and a Bachelor degree in Education (B.Ed.). The further case of the petitioners is that the Government has issued G.O.Ms.No.1719 dated 14.9.1978, prescribing qualification for appointment of Vocational Instructors and also sanctioned the appointment to teach the students of above mentioned Vocational groups. It is also stated that for Commerce and Business Group, the Government prescribed Commerce degree as the qualification for the Vocational stream.

(3.) ON the basis of the above similarities and the nature of work, the petitioners claim for fixation of equal pay on par with that of P.G. Teachers based on the principle of equal pay for equal work. It is also stated that the P.G. Teachers are given the scale of pay of Rs.6,500-200-10500 for handling classes for Commerce and Accountancy groups for the Higher Secondary Students and for the Vocational Teachers who are also handing classes for the Higher Secondary Students in Commerce, Accountancy, Auditing, Office Management are given only the scale of pay of Rs.5,500-175-9000/- Therefore, the petitioners claim that they are also entitled to have the equal pay as that of the P.G. Assistants based on the principles enshrined under Articles, 14, 15, and 39(d) of the Constitution of India.