MUKESH MANHAS Vs. STATE OF H P

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE 94 petitioners filed an Original Application before the erstwhile H.P. State Administrative Tribunal. On abolition of the Tribunal, the said Original Application was transferred to this Court in terms of the Himachal Pradesh Administrative Tribunal (Transfer of Decided and Pending Cases and Applications) Act, 2008, and registered as CWP-T No. 2114 of 2008.

(2.) ALL the 94 petitioners are working as DPEs in the Senior Secondary Schools. They are basically Physical Education Teachers. The undisputed facts of the case are that the Plus Two Classes, i.e. 11th and 12th, are taught only in Senior Secondary Schools. The case of the petitioners is that whereas all the other teachers teaching all other subjects to the plus one and plus two classes in the Senior Secondary Schools are designated as Lecturers (School cadre) and paid the scale of a lecturer (` 6400-10600/-), whereas the petitioners are not designated as Lecturers (School cadre) and are given pay in the scale of ` 5480-8925/-.

(3.) THE case of the petitioners is that as per these Regulations, only those persons who have obtained a Master Degree in Physical Education of two years duration are entitled to be appointed in the senior secondary schools. It is also not disputed that in all other subjects being taught in the senior secondary schools by the lecturers, the minimum qualification prescribed is a Master Degree in the relevant subject with Bachelor of Education or its equivalent, i.e. M.A., B.Ed. or a two years integrated M.Sc.Ed. Course. THE petitioners submit that the State, for reasons best known to it, has not amended the minimum educational qualifications for Physical Education teachers and the DPEs are being continued in the lower scale of pay even though they are teaching plus two classes.