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Synopsis

The Delhi High Court has directed the Delhi government to constitute a high-powered committee to supervise the implementation of recommendations and guidelines of the sixth and seventh Central Pay Commission (CPC) dealing with salaries and arrears to staff of private unaided schools and recognized private unaided minority schools.

Terming education as “an invincible weapon” for empowering the next generation, the bench of Justice Chandra Dhari Singh said that the regulating authority has to exercise certain control to ensure that a uniform quality of education is provided to every student in the country.

“Education is an invincible weapon for empowering the next generation of the nation, and … regulating authority has to exercise certain control to ensure that uniform quality of education is provided to every student of the country. The aspect of autonomy in administration of unaided or aided school therefore, does not come into play since the state has to ensure that there is quality education provided to the children. Hence, the unaided minority schools are bound by certain regulations of the appropriate authority", it said.

The court said that the committee shall be constituted at the central and zonal levels and also directed the Directorate of Education (DoE) to issue a notification within two weeks for the purpose of convening a zonal committee, wherein various stakeholders, including teaching and non-teaching staff of several schools, who are aggrieved by the non-implementation of the Pay Commission, shall file their claim before the panel.

"The Committee must devise a mechanism so that the staff of the schools are paid their dues irrespective of the fact that the schools do not have the requisite funds", the court said. 

"This Court observes that it is a sorry state of affairs that the staff of the school instead of contributing towards the education of the children, are before this Court seeking payment of their salary and emoluments as per Pay Commissions recommendations, which they are duly entitled to", the single-judge bench said.

The court was dealing with a batch of petitions filed by various staff working in private unaided schools and recognised private unaided minority schools, seeking benefits of the sixth and seventh CPC along with arrears and retirement benefits.

The court, in its 136-page judgment, said, "The main reason for non- implementation of the Pay Commission is that the schools have not been able to hike the fee. The regulating authority, i.e., the DoE is also not able to ensure that there is implementation of the recommendations of the Pay Commission since the DoE can only derecognize the school in case there is non-compliance with its order".

"Derecognition of the school is not always the ideal situation, as the same would affect the children studying in the school and the employment of the staff of the school. Therefore, directing DoE to ensure that there is implementation of pay commission recommendation by de-recognition of school is not the best solution to the issues", it added.

The court also said that the petitioners‘ grievances were valid and non-compliance of the notification issued by the DoE for the implementation of recommendations of the 7th CPC violated the petitioners‘ rights enshrined under the Constitution of India.

Furthermore, the court directed, "The schools shall ensure that there is an adequate compensation paid to the staff of the school. Since, in the school the future generations of the country are being taught and if the teachers are not paid decently they might not be able to perform their best in imparting knowledge to the students".

Case Title: Anjali Vaid and Ors. v. Adarsh World School & Ors. (Batch of connected matters)