JAGDISH RAJ Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) SWP No. 1505/96 The petitioners are part - - time Instructors engaged under adult/Non -formal education scheme the object of which according to them was to achieve hundred per cent education by the year 2000. It is admitted by them that they were engaged on a consolidated monthly wage of Rs 100/ - which has been revised to Rs. 200/ -. The Government it is further stated has provided 3% reservation for their absorption in the Education Department as teachers but the benefit has been denied to them. The relief claimed by them is that respondents be directed to regularize them as teachers and they be paid the wages equivalent to the teachers of the Education Department. The admitted case of the petitioners is that they have been engaged in the Adult/non -formal education projects by the District Project Officer, Kathua. They were earlier being paid Rs. 100/ - per month which has been raised to Rs. 200/ -. Non -formal education teachers are part -time instructors as admitted by them. They are not regular employees. Their engagement is only in a scheme. They therefore, cannot claim parity with the teachers who are appointed on the posts created by the government and whose conditions of service are governed by the service rules. Since part -time Instructors are not working against any regular post, therefore, question of their regularization does not arise.

(2.) A similar question arose before their lordships of the Supreme Court in K.S. Mahal ingegowda v. Secretary to Government department of Vocational Education, Karnataka 1995 AIR SCW 1669 rejecting the claim for regularization and parity in the pay scale with teachers regularly appointed, their lordships held: - "9. We have given our thoughtful consideration to the rival contentions of the learned counsel for the parties. We are of the view that the claim of the appellants to be regularized as teachers and be paid the same salary as is being paid to the non -vocational teachers -based on the principle of "equal pay for equal work" is wholly misconceived. It is entirely within the executive domain of the State Government to take a policy decision and frame any scheme for the benefit of the people of the State. The vocational training scheme is one of such schemes. The avowed object of the scheme is to provide vocational training for a period of one/two years to the students who do not wish to pursue academic studies beyond 10th class. It is a useful scheme which helps young men to acquire eligibility for employment in skilled jobs while they are still in the educational institutions. The scheme was a results of the policy decision of the State Government. It was entirely for the State Government to lay - - down as to what type of teaching - - staff was required to implement the scheme. Duration of the scheme, the financial involvement, type of the vocational training and various other aspects must have been taken into consideration by the State Government while providing the mechanism to implement the scheme. When the scheme has been made to operate with the help of the part - - time teaching staff, it is not for this Court, ordinarily to modify the scheme and direct the State Government to employ whole time staff to implement the scheme. This court in Delhi Development Horticulture Employees Union v. Delhi Administration Delhi (1992) 4 SCC 99 : (1992 AIR SCW 616) speaking through P.B.Sawant J. Observed as under (Para 14 of AIR): - - "Those employed under the scheme, therefore, could not ask for more than what the scheme intended to give them. To get an employment under such scheme and to claim on the basis of the said employment, a right to regularization, is to frustrate the scheme itself. No court can be a party to such exercise. It is wrong to approach the problems of those employed under such schemes with a view to providing them with full employment and guaranteeing equal pay for equal work. These concepts, in the context of such schemes are both unwarranted and misplaced. They will do more harm than good by depriving the many of the little income that they may get to keep them from starvation. They would benefit a few at the cost of the many starving poor for whom the schemes are meant. That would also force the State to wind up the existing schemes and forbid them from introducing the new ones, for want for resources." Even otherwise we see no parity on facts between the vocational teachers under the scheme and other teaching staff in an educational institution. Vocational training is not a part of regular teaching in the institutions where the appellants are working. It is only as a result of the implementation of the scheme that the educational institutions have been given option to introduce vocational training. The method of teaching the extent of responsibility and the requirement of academic - - intellect in the two sets of teaching is entirely different. Teaching academic subjects like English. History, Mathematics, Geography, etc. is not the same as giving practical training in clock and watch repair, photography, printing and book binding, optician and refractionist, horticulture, sericulture."

(3.) AS the petitioners are not holding any post because Adult/Non -formal education is not a part of regular teaching in the teaching institutions, they cannot claim regularization. It was next argued that petitioners are entitled to regularisation in terms of Government Order No. 325 -Edu of 1985 dated 16.7.1985 which reads as under: - - "Sanction is accorded to the reserving of 3% posts of teachers in each District for the Instructors of non -formal Education Centres who have continuously worked in the centres for at least four years and have also retained minimum enrolment of 25 students on an average for the same period. By order of the Government of Jammu and Kashmir." However, vide SRO 126 dated 28.6.1994 the Governor in exercise of powers under section 124 of the Constitution has made Jammu and Kashmir Reservation Rules, 1994 providing under Articles 15 and 16 of the Constitution of India. Rule - - 38 of these Rules reads as under: - - "38. Repeal and Savings: - - From the date these rules come into force, all rules, notifications and orders corresponding to the provisions of these rules shall stand repealed; Provided that any action taken or orders issued under the rules, notification or orders so repealed shall be deemed to have been taken ender these rules." Admittedly, no provision has been made for this category in these rules. So the order stands repealed and cannot be invoked.