- (1.) All the above writ petitions have been directed to be clubbed together for disposal. They are at instance of teachers at two of the 'Sanskrit institutes' at Patiala and Nabha. The cases could be brought under two heads broadly: one, the cases in the nature of public interest that were filed by the affected teachers themselves that the Sanskrit Mahavidyalya, Patiala and Sanskrit Institute at Nabha shall not be brought down to the level of school since they conduct courses at par with colleges beyond the level of matriculation and that the institutes shall be run with teachers of college cadre; two, claims at the instance of the teachers, who would contend that they are entitled to the scales of pay commensurate with the Lecturers and Professors of colleges since the syllabi for the courses are approved by the Punjabi University at Patiala and the qualifications for teachers are as prescribed by the University.
(2.) The common ground for all the teachers, who have filed various writ petitions is that in a suit filed by one Acharya Lekh Ram Dixit against State of Punjab when he was sought to be transferred from the Sanskrit Mahavidyalaya, Patiala to a school, he sought for a restraint on the ground that the institute was equivalent to a college and any such transfer would not be permissible. The Court accepted the contention and decreed the suit and also held that he would be entitled to the scale of pay of a Lecturer in colleges. This was the central plank on which several of the teachers working in these two institutes would claim as applicable to them also.
(3.) The disputes have been pending for fairly well over two decades and in such a long span of time, various interim orders have been passed. There have been orders of stay granted against transfers of teachers from school cadre to these institutes and at the same time permitting transfers to be made to or from colleges. The Government itself has upgraded these institutes and brought it under a single umbrella of Institute of Oriental Languages under the control of the Director, Public Instructions (Colleges). The Government has filed an affidavit in one of the cases seeking for vacation of stay against transfers to enable the State to repatriate teachers brought from school cadre to the respective schools so that process of transfers from colleges could be undertaken on a permanent basis. 3A. Learned Senior Counsel appearing for the petitioner, Sh. Manjit Singh Khaira would take me through history to stress upon importance of these institutes in this region. The Sanskrit Mahavidyalaya Patiala is reported to have come into existence in the Patiala State for imparting education in the classical language of Sanskrit in the year 1860. Later English and Mathematics languages had been introduced in the year 1862 and in 1870, the Maharaja of Patiala created an Education Department and the institute was affiliated to the Calcutta University in the year 1874. The Viceroy of India Lord North Brooke laid the foundation stone of Mahindra College Patiala and Lord Rippon inaugurated the college building in the year 1884. The courses offered at the Mahavidyalaya were Shastri, Vishara, Prajana all in Sanskrit and Gyani, Vidwan and Budhiman all in Punjabi. The classes in Sanskrit and Punjabi were separated from the college and moved to the separate institutions in the name of Sanskrit Vidyalaya and Gurmukhi Vidyalaya, Patiala in 1912. These two Vidyalayas were amalgamated in 1963 and a new institution namely the Government Institute of Classical and Modern Indian Language, Patiala was established. The Punjabi University at Patiala laid down the qualification of teaching staff of the affiliated institution for OT and MIL examination. For the Sanskrit teaching staff, the qualification was BA+Shastri+Prabhakar for teaching Prajana and Visharad and for still higher course of Shastri, MA Sanskrit+Shastri+Acharya were needed.;