HARI DUTT SHARMA Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) As many as eight writ petitions were filed by different Sanskrit Teachers who were teachers at two of the 'Sanskrit Institutes' at Patiala and Nabha. All these petitions were clubbed together and disposed of vide common judgment dated 28.09.2011. Petitioners in three of these petitions have felt aggrieved by the said judgment and therefore, preferred these intra-court appeals.

(2.) One writ petition was filed in the year 1989 and the remaining two were filed in the year 1992. Interim orders were passed from time to time granting stay of the transfers of the petitioners (appellants herein) to the schools. These writ petitions were dismissed by the impugned orders dated 28.09.2011. Before we proceed further we would like to note in brief the scope of the writ petitions in all the three appeals:-

(3.) Appellant, namely, Subhash Chander, who was petitioner in Civil Writ Petition No. 13763 of 1992, had been transferred from the school. He also claimed the scale of Lecturer on the principle of 'equal pay for equal work'. In the written statement filed by the respondents, it was accepted that Sanskrit Mahavidalaya, Patiala had been affiliated to the Panjab University, Chandigarh and subsequently to the Punjabi University, Patiala but the contention was that mere affiliation of the Examining Body could not automatically raise the status of the institution and of the staff to that of collage. The plea of the respondents was that the appellant teaching at Mahavidalaya belongs to the school cadre and was never considered as College lecturer.