Joy Krishna Murmu vs State of West Bengal

This writ application is filed by the petitioner assailing an order passed by the respondent No. 2 rejecting his claim for extending benefit of Honours Graduate Scale of Pay in his favour in connection with his services as ''Assistant Teacher'' of Bandel Vidyamandir, District-Hooghly. The appointment of the petitioner to the post of assistant teacher of the School under reference was approved by the respondent No. 3 with effect from July 20, 1996 By a resolution adopted in the meeting of the Managing Committee, permission was given to him for appearing in B.Sc. Honours Examination. The Headmaster of the concerned School forwarded the said resolution to the respondent No. 6 on May 16 2005 The respondent No. 3 gave him prior permission to appear in the above examination by a communication issued under his Memo No. 939 dated July 26, 2005. The petitioner passed B.Sc. Honours Examination in the year 2006.

In support of the submission Mr. Soumitra Bandyopadhyay, learned Counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioner relied upon the judgment dated October 16, 2012 delivered by a Division Bench of this Court in MAT 1459 of 2012.

Having heard the learned Counsel appearing for the respective parties as also after considering the materials on record I find that the claim of the petitioner was rejected by the respondent No. 2 on two grounds : Firstly, the provisions of section 14 of the West Bengal Schools (Control of Expenditure) Act, 2005, does not permit enhancement of the Scale of pay of the petitioner as prayed for; and Secondly, the Government Order 593-SE(B)/ES/O/IM-98/2007 dated November 27, 2007 prescribed a procedure for obtaining higher qualification by the Assistant Teachers of the Educational Institutions, which had not been followed by the petitioner.

So far as the Second ground is concerned, admittedly the petitioner had obtained B.Sc. Honours qualification prior to the date of introduction of the above Government Order. The above Government Order had no retrospective effect. Therefore, it had no manner of application in the instant case.

In order to examine the validity of the first ground the provisions of section 14 of the West Bengal Schools (Control of Expenditure) Act, 2005 (hereinafter referred to as the said Act of 2005) are as follows:--

(1) Every teacher of a school shall, if appointed in the post of Undergraduate teacher category, be entitled to draw pay in the scale of pay in which he is appointed and shall not be entitled to claim any additional increment or higher scale of pay for acquiring any qualification other than the qualifications specified for such post.

(2) Every teacher of a school shall, if appointed in the post of Graduate teacher category, be entitled to draw pay in the scale of pay in which he is appointed and shall not be entitled to claim any additional increment or higher scale of any for acquiring any qualification other than the qualifications specified for such post.

(3) Every teacher of a school shall, if appointed in the Honours Graduate or Postgraduate teacher category, be entitled to draw pay of Post-graduate teacher category, upon acquiring Post-graduate degree, in the manner as may be specified by order.

The West Bengal Schools (Control of Expenditure) Act, 2005 came into force with effect from August 19, 2005.

From the aforesaid provisions I find that sub-section (2) of section 14 of the said Act of 2005 was applicable in case of the petitioner because his appointment was in the post of Graduate Teacher category. Needless to point out that he was not appointed in the post of undergraduate teacher category or in Honours graduate or in the post of graduate category and provisions of sub-sections (1) and (3) of the said Act of 2005 had no manner of application in his case.

After careful consideration of the claim of the petitioner in the light of the above provisions of sub-section (2) of section 14 of the said Act of 2005, I find that he was not entitled to claim any additional increment or higher scale of pay for acquiring qualification other than the qualifications specified for such post. No higher scale of pay for acquiring any qualification was prescribed so far as the appointment of a teacher in the post of graduate post category was concerned.

The case relied upon by the learned Advocate, has no manner of application in the instant case because the issue involved in that case was granting of Postgraduate Scale of Pay in favour of the concerned Assistant Teacher, who was initially appointed with academic qualification of B.Sc. (Honours).

In view of the aforesaid discussions, the claim of the petitioner cannot be granted on the basis of the first ground in the order impugned.

The writ application is therefore dismissed. There will be no order as to costs. Urgent photostat certified copy of this order, if applied for, be given to the parties, on priority basis.