KRISHNA KUMAR Vs. STATE OF HARYANA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) (Oral) - This Judgment will dispose of this writ petition as well as civil writ petitions No. 2048, 2444, 3271, 3762, 5024, 6614, 8923, 9592, 9587, 10006, 10454 and 12896, all of the year 1999, as common questions of fact and law are involved in all these cases.

(2.) The petitioners in all these cases are JBT Teachers. By virtue of a letter of the State of Punjab, which was issued on July 23, 1957, which was made the subject matter of interpretation in many cases starting from State of Punjab and others Vs. Kirpal Singh Bhatia and others, 1975(2) SLR 621, the law that came to be laid down was that on the basis of the letter of the Punjab Government aforesaid, a Teacher who may be having higher qualifications than the one required for the post a teacher was holding, he would be put in a higher pay scale depending upon his higher qualifications, though, as observed above, these qualifications may not be required for a post such an incumbent was/is holding at a particular point of time. The State of Haryana issued instructions dated March 9, 1990, whereby it retracted from the earlier principle contained in letter of the Punjab Government dated July 23, 1957 that Teachers acquiring the BT or B.Ed. degree or higher qualifications would be entitled to higher grade w.e.f. the respective dates of their acquiring qualifications. In other words, the instructons dated March 9, 1990, laid down that henceforth a Teacher, who may be appointed though may have the higher qualification than required for the post, would not get the pay scale of the higher post according to his qualification but would get the pay scale which is the pay scale of the post to which he is appointed. It may be observed here that the instructions dated March 9, 1990, came up for consideration before the Apex Court in Wazir Singh Vs. State of Bihar, 1996(1) RSJ 784, and the same were upheld. The apex Court in Wazir Singh's case (supra) held that the policy instructions issued by the Government would operate prospectively and any teacher acquiring qualifications of BT/B.Ed. would not get the higher pay scale automatically on acquiring such qualifications. It was made clear that those who had acquired such qualifications before march 9, 1990, and had also been appointed prior to March 9, 1990, would keep on getting the benefit of the Government letter of the State of Punjab dated July 23, 1957. This meant that an appointee after March 9, 1990, though may have higher qualifications was put in the pay scale which was meant for the post to which he was appointed whereas a pre-March 9, 1990, appointee was put in a higher pay scale depending upon his qualifications though working on a post for which those qualifications were even not required. As observed above, the petitioners herein are pre-March 9, 1990 appointees and have been enjoying the higher pay scale meant for the higher post as per their qualifications though working on lower posts of JBT Teachers.

(3.) The State of Haryana issued revised pay Rules - Haryana Civil Service Revised Pay Rules, 1998, (hereinafter called the rules) which became effective from Jan. 1, 1996. These rules have been framed under Art. 309 of the Constitution of India. Rules 3(c) and 3(d) of the rules are in the following terms:-