CWP No.67 of 2011 1 In the High Court of Punjab and Haryana at Chandigarh Date of decision: 04.01.2011 Avtar Singh Mehatpuri and others .. Petitioners Versus The State of Punjab and another .. Respondents CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE PERMOD KOHLI Present: Mrs. K.K. Kahlon, Advocate,for the petitioners. Mrs. Charu Tuli, Senior DAG, Punjab, for the respondents. PERMOD KOHLI, J. (Oral): Notice of motion. On the asking of the Court, Mrs. Charu Tuli, Senior DAG, Punjab, accepts notice on behalf of the respondents. Requisite number of copies of the writ petitions have been supplied to her today itself in Court. With the consent of the learned counsel for the parties, this petition is being disposed of at the motion stage. The petitioners are/were working in the State of Punjab as Art and Craft/Drawing Teachers, PTI, Sewing/Silai, Agriculture, Domestic/Home Science teachers, C & V teachers in a joint cadre classical and vernacular teachers. They are having joint seniority with other C & V teachers i.e. Punjabi, Hindi/Urdu and Sanskrit Teachers. The Art and Craft a also Drawing teachers have to possess the CWP No.67 of 2011 2 qualifications of Matric, plus two years diploma in Art and Craft teachers training. The State of Punjab revised the pay scales of certain categories of non-gazetted government servants by its letter dated 23.07.1957. The pay scales of the teachers in the education department were also revised. All the teachers were first divided into two categories: one being category “A” comprising of Masters and the Second being category “B” comprising of teachers. Thereafter, on the basis of the recommendations made by the Kothari Commission, the State of Punjab revised the pay scales of the teachers in the government schools by its letter dated 29.07.1967 w.e.f. 1.11.1966. A dispute arose whether Silari/Sewing teachers were part of cadre of Classical and Vernacular teachers or not. The petitioners in the present writ petition are seeking direction to the respondents to grant the petitioners the benefits as already granted by this Hon'ble Court in identical bunch of writ petitions being CWP No.16380 of 1989 and other connected writ petitions decided on 07.05.2009. It is agreed to by the learned counsel for the parties that the present writ petition is covered by a judgment rendered in CWP No.19648 of 2009 (Tarlochan Singh and others Vs. State of Punjab and another) on 08.12.2010 (Annexure P-15) wherein the following observations have been made:- “Since the respondent State has taken a stand that CWP No.67 of 2011 3 claim of the petitioners would be covered as the case of the petitioners in these petitions is identical, the petitions are allowed in terms of Civil Writ Petition No.14264 of 1991 titled “Harbhajan Singh Dhindsa & others Vs. State of Punjab & another” decided on 09.11.2009.” The claim of the petitioners in this writ petition is squarely covered by the observations made above. In view of the above, present writ petition is allowed. The petitioners are held entitled to the same pay scale as granted to the teachers teaching Hindi, Punjab and Urdu languages. The respondents are directed to pay arrears to the petitioners within a period of five months from the date a certified copy of this order is made available to the competent authority. 04.01.2011 (PERMOD KOHLI) BLS JUDGE