- (1.) THE petitioner was an Organizing Teacher of Andharia Jatiya Vidyapith Junior High School in the District of Midnapore. Initially his appointment as Organizing Teacher of the said school was approved by the concerned District Inspector of Schools (Secondary Education), Tamluk, with effect from 7th March, 1995 for a limited period till 31st December, 1995. While approving the petitioner's appointment as an Organizing Teacher of the said school, the petitioner was requested to improve his qualification within three years, if he wants to be appointed as Headmaster of the said school, as per rule. Subsequently, the said approval order was partially modified and the service of the petitioner as Teacher-in-Charge of the said school was approved by the concerned District Inspector of School (Secondary Education), Tamluk, with effect from 1st January, 1986 in terms of the order passed by this Hon'ble Court on 9th Mach, 1999 in W.P. No. 268 of 1999.
(2.) AT the time of his appointment, the petitioner's education qualification was B.Sc. Subsequently, the petitioner enhanced his educational qualification as he acquired Master Degree in Bengali from Utkal University in 1997. Thereafter the appointment of the petitioner as Headmaster of the said school was approved by the concerned District Inspector of School with effect from 11th November, 1997. The said approval was communicated to the school authority by the concerned District Inspector of School by his letter 22nd December, 1998 under memo No. 1228-S appearing at page 56 of this writ petition. The educational qualification of the petitioner at the time of granting approval to his appointment in the post of Headmaster in the said school was recorded as M.A. in Bengali. The scale of pay which was admissible to the petitioner as Head Master of the said school was also mentioned by the concerned District Inspector of School in the said letter of approval. The scale was subsequently revised from time to time and the petitioner was paid his salary as per such pay fixation and/or revision thereof regularly during the tenure of his service. The petitioner retired from service on superannuation on 30th June, 2010. Before his retirement the school authority forwarded the pension papers of the petitioner to the concerned District Inspector of School (Secondary Education) Purba Medinipur on 18th November, 2009. Since the pensionary benefit and other retiral dues have not yet been paid to the petitioner, the petitioner has come before this Court with this writ petition seeking issuance of direction upon the concerned Authority for immediate release of his pensionary benefit and other retiral dues. On perusal of the writ petition, this Court finds that the concerned District Inspector of School from time to time wrote letters to the school authority for submission of various documents which according to him, was required for settlement of the pensionary benefit and/or retiral dues of the petitioner. By such letters being letter dated 15th January, 2010 etc., written by the said D.I. of School, the school authority was requested to produce the following two documents before the said District Inspector of Schools: - (i) copy of the document indicating last date of M.A. Examination; (ii) copy of the order granting study leave for M.A. Examination.
(3.) THE school authority submitted both the aforesaid documents to the concerned District Inspector of School, as it appears from annexures P/4 and P/5 to this writ petition at pages 74 and 79 thereof respectively. Thus, this Court does not find any apparent difficulty for releasing the pensionary benefits and/or other retiral dues of the petitioner as the documents which were called for, were all submitted by the school authority to the concerned District Inspector of Schools. In course of hearing of this writ petition, a report was submitted by the concerned District Inspector of School through his appearing counsel wherefrom this Court finds that the pensionary benefits and the other retiral dues of the petitioner could not be released due to the following objection raised by the Joint Director of Accounts, Purba Medinipur:- (i) the petitioner was appointed in Science Group having B.Sc. Degree qualification; (ii) afterwards he passed M.A. in Bengali on 10th November, 1997; (iii) as per G.O. No. 25-SE (B) 1M-102/98 dated Calcutta 12th February, 1999, Clause 12(3) and No. 155-SE(B) dated Calcutta 13th July, 1999 Amendment (3), he did not improve his qualification in the subject or group relevant to his teaching and appointment; (iv) moreover, there was no requisite approval for drawal of higher scale of pay shown by him till date. Relevant other objections like approval of study leave sanctioning memo of the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education regarding acquiring higher qualification was raised well before the date of his retirement i.e. 11th January, 2010 and 29th March, 2010 by the Accounts Department, Purba Medinipur; ;