ARJUN DEV Vs. STATE OF HARYANA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This judgment will dispose of Civil Writ Petitions No. 3602 and 5212 of 1991 as common questions of law and facts are involved therein.

(2.) The petitioners are teachers employed in Education Department in the State of Haryana. As per admitted stand of the parties, they did not possess the requisite qualification for the post of Masters when they entered into service. However, during the course of their employment while serving as teachers, they acquired the qualification of B.T./B.Ed. By way of present writ petition, they are seeking from the Hon'ble Court a direction to the respondents to award the petitioners Master's grade from the date of their acquiring B.T/B.Ed. qualification. In support of this plea, they have relied upon a judgment of the Supreme Court in Chaman Lal and others v. State of Haryana, 1987 AIR(SC) 1621 and a Full Bench decision of this Court in Bhagwan Dutt Sharma and others v. State of Haryana,1988 2 ILR(P&H) 240. On the other hand, learned counsel for the State, Mr. Prem Singh, DAG Haryana has contented that the petitioners are not entitled to the Master's grade. His precise submission is that the petitioners merely on acquiring higher qualification would not be entitled to Master's grade. In support of this, he has placed reliance upon a Division Bench judgment of this court in Bachan Lal Lahori and others v. State of Haryana and others, C.W.P. No. 770 of 1989.

(3.) After hearing the learned counsel for the parties, we find that the subject-matter of both the writ petitions is squarely covered by decisions of Supreme Court in Chaman Lal's case and Full Bench of this Court in Bhagwan Dutt Sharma's case . In Chaman Lal's case, this very question was considered by the Supreme Court and while allowing the appeals and writ petitions of the teachers the Supreme Court ruled as under :-