HC stays order to form HPC for implementation of 6th, 7th CPC recommendations in pvt schools

The Delhi High Court has stayed an order which had directed the city government to set up a high-powered committee to supervise the implementation of recommendations and guidelines of the sixth and seventh Central Pay Commissions dealing with salaries and arrears to the staff of private unaided schools and recognised private unaided minority schools here.

A bench of Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Mini Pushkarna, in a November 24 order, stayed certain paragraphs in the judgment passed by a single judge and issued notice to the Delhi government and several private schools on the appeal filed by some of the staff members of the schools.

It also stayed the single judge's direction that the committee shall be constituted at central and zonal levels and also that the Directorate of Education (DoE) shall issue a notification within two weeks for the purpose of convening 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 recommendations, shall file their claim.

The schools' staff, represented through advocates Ashok Agarwal and Kumar Utkarsh, submitted that there was no justification for sending their case to the proposed committees as the DoE has already passed orders.

''The constitution of committees is beyond the powers of a writ court under the Constitution. The committees constituted are more or less an adjudicatory body with powers to decide the fees and conclude that the school is not in a position to pay the 6th and 7th CPC. Secondly, it has given the powers to declare the appointment of any teacher as illegal,'' the lawyer said.

According to him, such committees in law can only be created by a legislation and not in the manner as has been done by the single judge's judgment and that the committees are unnecessary and unworkable.

The high court listed the appeals for further hearing on January 15 next year.

The single judge, in the November 17 judgment, had termed education ''an invincible weapon'' for empowering the next generation and said the regulating authority has to exercise certain control to ensure that uniform quality of education was provided to every student of the country.

The court's judgment had come on a batch of petitions by several staff members working in private unaided schools and recognised private unaided minority schools here, seeking benefits of the sixth and seventh Central Pay Commissions along with arrears and retirement benefits.

It had said various judgments have been passed by this court pertaining to the implementation of the recommendations of the pay commissions. However, the same has not been implemented till date due to the issue of lack of financial resources with the schools.

''The main reason for non-implementation of the Pay Commission (recommendations) is that the schools have not been able to hike the fee. The regulating authority, that is, DoE is also not able to ensure there is implementation of the recommendations of the Pay Commission since the DoE can only derecognise school in case there is non-compliance with its order.

''De-recognition of the school is not always the ideal situation as the same would affect the children studying in the school and employment of the staff of the school. Therefore, directing DoE to ensure there is implementation of pay commission recommendation by de-recognition of school is not the best solution to the issues," the single judge had said.

It had held that the petitioners' grievances are valid and non-compliance of the notification issued by the DoE for the implementation of recommendations of 7th CPC violates their rights enshrined under the Constitution.

''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. The payment of adequate salary to the staff of the school acts as a motivating factor for the teachers in giving their best in teaching the children,'' the court had said.