B.S. Dhillon, J. - (1.) This judgment will dispose of Civil Writ Petitions Nos. 3674, 3912. 4090 of 1977 : 87, 1183, 1662, 3311, 3623 of 1978 and 745 of 1979.
(2.) The facts giving rise, as mentioned in C. W. P. No. 3674 of 1977 may briefly be stated. The petitioners, Smt. Shervinder Kaur, was appointed as untrained Science Mistrees in the Masters Cadre of the Education Department of the erstwhile State of Punjab and she joined service on 20th June, 1964. She was allocated to the re-organised State of Punjab with effect from 1st Nov., 1966, and at present she is working as such in the Government Girls High School, Jawahar Nagar Camp, Ludhiana. She was appointed on fixed salary and after she passed the B.Ed. Examination, regular running grade of Masters was ordered to be released to her instead of fixed pay. This was done with effect from 9th Oct., 1975. It has been averred in the petition that the State Government decided in 1972, that once a person has been recruited to the service and brought to a particular cadre of service, he should be given the same pay as is allowable to the other members of the Cadre. He should not be given less pay on the ground of not having acquired the requisite qualifications Copy of this letter dated 24th April, 1972, containing the Government decision, is Annexure P-1' with the writ petition It has been alleged that a number of teachers who were appointed as J. B. T. Teachers in the Punjab education Service, were given the pay according to the prescribed grade of J. B. T. .time scale irrespective of the qualifications possessed by the said teachers. Copy of the decision of the Punjab Government dated 10th March, 1977, is attached as Annexure 'P-2' with the writ petition It has thus been averred that in view of the decision of the State Government referred to in Annexures 'P-l' and 'P-2 the petitioner is entitled to the running grade from the date of her appointment to the service and not from the date the acquired the requisite qualifications of B. Ed
(3.) In the return filed on behalf of the State, it has been averred that the basic qualifications for the appointment to the posts of Masters, was passing of the examination of B. T. or B. Ed and since the petitioner had not acquired that qualification, she was appointed on a fixed salary as was made clear in the appointment letter given to her. It has further been averred that the Government at no stage took the decision to give Masters' running grade to those teachers irrespective of their educational qualifications. It has been pleaded that the letters, copies of which are Annexures 'P I' and 'P-2 only relate to the teachers falling in the cadre of J. B. T. teachers. It has thus been averred that the petitioner is not entitled to the running grade from the date of her appointment as it was specifically made clear that she was being appointed on a fixed salary till she acquired the requisite necessary qualifications.;