- (1.) The present writ petition has been filed under Articles 226/227 of the Constitution of India for directing the respondents to grant the petitioners higher pay scale in accordance with qualifications possessed by the petitioners in view of the judgment of the Hon'ble Supreme Court in Chaman Lal and others Vs. State of Haryana, 1987 AIR(SC) 1621 and in view of the Full Bench judgment of this Court in Om Parkash Arya's case.
(2.) The pleaded case of the petitioners is that they are working as J.B.T. Teachers/Hindi Teachers as mentioned in the head note of the writ petition in different schools and had acquired the B.A./B.A.Part-I/Inter qualifications on the basis of which they were entitled for the higher scale. The pay scales of the petitioners were raised with effect from 1.5.1957 by the erstwhile State of Punjab vide letter dated 23.7.1957. It was further pleaded that the Haryana Government adopted the aforesaid decision of the Punjab Government. The Haryana Government accepted the recommendations of the 'Kothari Commission' and revised the scales of pay of different categories of teachers with effect from 1.12.1967 and the pay scales were given on the basis of qualifications. The teachers who possessed B.A.B.T./B.Ed qualifications filed Civil Writ Petition claiming that they fall in category 'A' of Annexure P-2 and should be granted the master grade which was allowed by this Court and the view of this Court was upheld by the Hon'ble Apex Court in State of Punjab Vs. Kirpal Singh Bhatia, 1975 2 SLR 621. Subsequently, in Labh Singh Garcha and others Vs. State of Punjab,1976 SLWR 476 the benefit of higher pay scale on the basis of higher qualifications was given to the teachers who possessed the qualifications of Giani/Prabhakar and the Classical and Vernacular teachers. Reliance was placed upon Chaman Lal and others Vs. State of Haryana, 1987 AIR(SC) 1621.
(3.) The respondents in their written statement took the plea that the Punjab Educational Service Class III-Non-Gazetted-School Cadre Rules, 1955 had been adopted by the State of Haryana and the petitioners had been given salary as authorised by the Government from time to time in the pay scale of post held by them and the petitioners were not entitled to claim higher pay scale on the basis of Punjab Government letter dated 23.7.1957. The said letter had lost its force with effect from 1.12.1967 when the Haryana Government revised the pay scales of the employees vide Government letter dated 5.1.1968 and further revised the pay scales of the employees w.e.f. 1.4.1979 and 1.1.1986 and the petitioners were not entitled to the pay and allowances of the post of JST Teachers as they were never appointed as JST teachers nor they had worked as such. Limitation was also pressed into action pleading that the petitioners claim on the basis of instructions dated 23.7.1957 was barred i.e. after the expiry of 37 years. The judgment in Kirpal Singh Bhatia's case had been distinguished on the ground that the petitioners are not claiming higher pay scale on the basis of B.A./B.Ed. qualification. Similarly judgment in Chaman Lal's case was also sought to be distinguished on the basis of the submissions made in preliminary objections.;