ASHA RANI Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB AND ORS.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Heard the learned counsel for the petitioner at some length. The facts briefly stated arc; the petitioner was selected and appointed as a Lecturer in Mathematics on guest faculty, basis against a teaching post with salary defrayed from Parents Teachers Association [PTA] funds. The appointment came through an advertisement issued in the Punjabi Tribune in its issue dated 7th July, 2014. Earlier, she had taught in the same college, i.e., Government College, Phase - VI, SAS Nagar [Mohali] for three successive academic sessions. That engagement was through the aegis of the SIP Society for Information-Communication Technology Education Project with salary paid by the society and not by the Punjab Government. In the current session, she was engaged on contract for teaching work paid under the Self-Financing Scheme (SFS) supplemented by the PTA. As of a sudden her services were disengaged mid-session on 8th November, 2014 and she was substituted by a temporary teacher i.e. the 6th respondent. The 6th respondent had worked as Lecturer in Mathematics in the same college for many years till she forsook the assignment in which situation it was occupied by the petitioner in the present academic session through the aforesaid advertisement as a member of the guest faculty.

(2.) Aggrieved by the action of the 3rd and 4th respondent-PTA, the petitioner claimed that she was wrongly substituted by a temporary employee. She raised a dispute by serving a legal notice dated 13th November, 2014 on the Principal, Government College, Phase-VI, SAS Nagar [Mohali]. The 5th respondent replied to the legal notice and supported the action by differentiating between the status of the petitioner and the 6th respondent, one of guest faculty; the other employed on part time basis and paid from public funds and not through the Self Financing Scheme-cum-PTA scheme. Her grievance was not redressed locally.

(3.) The petitioner is before the Court claiming a certiorari to upset the appointment of the 6th respondent by illegal replacement on the theory that an ad hoc should not be substituted by an ad hoc employee, a temporary by a temporary and a stop-gap by a stop-gap arrangement and in this case, a guest faculty by temporary.