1 IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY, BENCH AT AURANGABAD WRIT PETITION NO. 5023 OF 2009 Burushunisa Begum Syed Iqbal, Age : 35 years, Occu. Service, Assistant Teacher in Municipal Council Primary School, Dhar Road, Parbhani, District Parbhani ..PETITIONER VERSUS 1. The State of Maharashtra through its Secretary, School Education Department, Mantralaya, Mumbai 2. The Director of Municipal Administration, Maharashtra State, Mumbai 3. The Director of Education, Maharashtra State, Pune 4. The Deputy Director of Education, Aurangabad Division, Aurangabad 5. The Municipal Council, Parbhani, through its Chief Officer ..RESPONDENTS Mr S.R. Barlinge, Advocate for the petitioner; Mr N.B. Khandare, G.P. for respondents no.1 to 4; Mr S.S. Bora, Advocate for respondent no.5. CORAM : P.V. HARDAS AND S.V. GANGAPURWALA, JJ DATE : 22nd March, 2010 2 ORAL JUDGMENT [ PER P.V.HARDAS , J ] 1. Rule. Rule returnable forthwith. With the consent of learned Counsel for the parties this petition is heard finally at the stage of admission. 2. By this petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India the petitioner prays for issuance of a writ of mandamus directing respondents no.1 to 4 to consider the claim of the petitioner for regularisation of her services. By virtue of prayer clause (C) to the petition, the petitioner prays for issuance of a writ of mandamus directing respondent no.5 to pay the arrears of salary of the petitioner from April, 2007 till date. 3. Undisputedly the proposal of the petitioner for regularisation of her services is pending consideration with the respondent no.1. The learned Government Pleader very fairly states that the said proposal would be decided in accordance with law within a period of eight weeks from today. We accept the aforesaid statement as an undertaking to the Court and direct the respondents to decide the proposal of the petitioner for regularisation of her services within eight weeks from today and communicate the decision thereon to the petitioner. 3 4. In respect of the arrears of salary from April, 2007 till date, Mr Bora, learned Counsel for respondent no.5 states on instructions that the Municipal Council, Parbhani could not pay the arrears of salary on account of precarious financial condition. Accordingly, the Municipal Council, Parbhani had issued letter to the petitioner dated 29.3.2007. On account of passage of time, according to us the aforesaid precarious nature of the finances cannot be said to be subsisting. In any event, that cannot be an answer to the demand of the petitioner for payment of her salary. Mr Bora, learned Counsel for respondent no.5 states on instructions that the arrears of salary from 2007 till date would be paid by respondent no.5 within three months from today. We accept the aforesaid statement as an undertaking to the Court. In the light of above, we allow this petition and make Rule absolute on the terms indicated above. We further clarify that in the event the arrears of salary are not paid by respondent no.5 within three months from today, the entire amount of arrears shall carry interest at the rate of 8% per annum from the date the arrears became due till the amount is actually paid to the petitioner. 4 Rule is, therefore, made absolute on the above terms with no order as to costs. ( S.V. GANGAPURWALA ) ( P.V.HARDAS ) JUDGE JUDGE 5