OM PAL SINGH Vs. STATE OF U P

JUDGEMENT

(1.) -The petitioner no. 1 is the Principal, petitioners No. 2 to 8 are Assistant Teachers, the petitioner No. 9 is a clerk and petitioners no. 10 to 12 are peons. All the petitioners are employed in the Atora Higher Secondary School, Atora, (Mawana), district Meerut, (for short the institution), which was upgraded from Junior High School. The petitioners have approached this Court under Article 226 of the Constitution of India with a prayer that a writ in the nature of Mandamus may be issued commanding the respondents to pay arrears of their salary and other allowances from March 1986 onwards and to continue to pay in future their salary regularly in accordance with the provisions of Section 3 of U. P. High School and Intermediate Colleges (Payment of Salaries of Teachers and others Employees) Act, 1971, (for short the Act).

(2.) IT was urged on behalf of the petitioner that even though the institution has been upgraded as High School from Junior High School, nevertheless the petitioners are not being paid their salary in accordance with Section 3 of the Act. IT was further urged that the act of respondents in not paying the salary to petitioners even though the institution has been upgraded as High School, was discriminatory and violative of Article 14 of the Constitution of India, whereas respondent no. 3 is paying salary to other institutions which were recognised or upgraded as High School or Intermediate Colleges and were receiving grant-in-aid. The present institution being upgraded to High School might not be in the list of grant-in-aid, but there appears to be no rationale in not making payment of salary to petitioner whereas the salary of employees of other institutions are being paid.

(3.) IN case the first submission of the learned counsel for the petitioner is accepted, that would be against the dictum laid down in the Full Bench decision of this Court in State of U. P. v. District Judge, Varanasi (Supra), and that would, by implication, lead to acceptance of the view taken in Brij Bhushan Lal v. State of U. P. (Supra), which was overruled in the aforesaid Full Bench. It was held in Brij Bhushan Lal's case (Supra), which was overruled in Full Bench, that grants-in-aid received by the Junior High School would be deemed to be grant-in-aid received by the High School and on the basis of upgradation itself the institution was entitled to the benefit of the provisions of Section 3 of the Act.