LAXMAN NARAYAN SATHE Vs. P.A. KULKARNI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) BY the present writ petition which is under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, the petitioners have prayed that it be declared that the classification of teachers in Engineering Colleges between those teaching the so-called Technical and the so-called non-technical subjects is illegal and that all teachers in Engineering Colleges be declared to be entitled to be treated alike and given the scales of pay payable to teachers teaching technical subjects.

(2.) THE petitioners are functioning as teachers in the Department of Physics of the Walchand Engineering College which is run by the 2nd Respondent-Society. The said College is run wholly under the control of the 3rd Respondent viz., The Director of Technical Education and the State of Maharashtra. The College applies pay scales to its staff in accordance with the directions of the State and most of the expenditures of the College are borne by the State. The petitioners have given details of their careers and qualifications in paragraphs 2 and 3 of the petition. The grievance of the petitioners in the petition is that different pay scales are provided for those teaching technical and those teaching non-technical subjects. While the petitioners were working as Assistant Professors in Physics, the Government proposed a Revision of Pay Scales of non-technical teachers in various Government and non-Government Engineering Colleges and Government Resolution dated 31st August 1972 was issued. The particulars of the said Resolution are mentioned in paragraph 4 of the petition. Further to the said Government Resolution, it is the petitioners' case, that the 3rd Respondent i.e. the Director of Technical Education wrote to the Principal of the College i.e. the 1st Respondent that the teachers who are appointed to the post of Assistant Professors either directly or by promotion after 1st April 1966 should be placed on the scale provided for by the said G.R. Thus in August 1972 the petitioners wrote a letter to the 1st Respondent. In the meantime, the petitioners wrote to the Deputy Educational Advisor (T), Government of India, pointing out the disparity in the pay scales payable to the teachers in the so-called Engineering and non-Engineering subjects and submitted that the same should be removed and that the designations of teachers in the non-Engineering subjects should not be withdrawn. In the meantime on 10th January 1979 another Government Resolution was issued which provided for different scale of pay for teachers teaching non-technical subjects. Thus according to the petitioners, this was objectionable as disparity was created and the petitioners filed this petition challenging the different scales. Although the Respondents have been served, no affidavit in reply has been filed. However, Mrs.Gokhale appears for Respondent Nos.3 and 4.

(3.) HAVING perused the said two Judgments and having heard the Counsel on both the sides, we are of the view that the two Judgments relied on by the petitioners definitely support the contentions raised by the petitioners in the present petition. We are in full agreement with the findings and conclusions arrived at by the learned Single Judge (as she then was).