S.C.Chandra & Ors vs State Of Jharkhand & Ors

The school was recognized by the State Government under the provisions of the Act of 1981. It was alleged that the Managing Committee of the School was constituted and reconstituted by the Management of the HCL. Thereafter 10+ 2 stream was introduced in the said School and a request was made by the President of the School to the Director, Bihar Secondary Education seeking permission to upgrade the ICC High School, Moubhander to +2 stage and the same was recognized by the Government of Bihar. However, in the meanwhile because of critical financial situation the managing committee of the school requested the management of the HCL to approach the State Government for taking over of the school at the earliest. The school was not taken over under the Act of 1981 by the newly formed State of Jharkhand. Since the management of HCL was closed on account of financial stress, therefore, no financial aid could be extended to the school and the writ petitioners could not get their salaries as the financial aid was not coming from the management of the HCL and therefore, they approached the High Court of Jharkhand for issuance of writ of mandamus against respondent nos. 3 to 6 to release pay and arrears along with dearness allowance and they also sought a further direction not to close down the school and in the alternative a direction was also sought to be issued against respondent nos. 1 & 2 to take over the management of the school.

9. The writ petitioner-appellants prayed before the High Court of Jharkhand by filing writ petition that direction and order may be given to the respondents to fix their pay scale at par with the pay scale of Government Secondary School teachers or at par with Grade I and II Clerks of the respondent-company. They also prayed that the facilities such as, provident fund, gratuity, pension and other retrial benefits should also be made available to them and it was further prayed that the State Government should take over the management of Ram Kanali School under the provisions of the Bihar Non- Government Secondary Schools (Taking over of Management and Control) Act, 1981 (hereinafter to be referred to as the 'Act'). A counter affidavit was filed by the Bharat Coking Coal Limited (hereinafter to be referred to as BCCL) that the present Ram Kanali School was not owned by the said BCCL and the school was run by the Managing Committee and the writ petitioners were never appointed by the BCCL and therefore, they were not the employees of BCCL. It was also submitted that BCCL used to release non- recurring grants to the privately managed schools on the recommendation of the Welfare Committee. But this release of grant was subject to certain conditions. This non-recurring grant-n-aid did not make the school a part of the management of BCCL and therefore any teacher in such privately managed school cannot be said to be the employee of BCCL thereby entitling him all benefits as are available to the regular employees of BCCL. It was also pointed out that the managing committee of Ram Kalai school was given grant-in-aid but that has been stopped and they totally disowned the responsibilities for any benefits whatsoever. However, learned Single Judge allowed the writ petition and directed that these teachers who were working in the school were entitled to the pay scale given to the clerks working in BCCL with effect from the date of the judgment with all consequential benefits such as provident fund, gratuity and other service benefits available to the employees of BCCL. So far as taking over of the school by the State of Jharkhand was concerned, no direction was given by learned Single Judge. Aggrieved against this order passed by the learned Single Judge, appeal was prepared and along with this appeal two more appeals were filed by the BCCL before the Division Bench. Therefore, all these three appeals were taken up by the Division Bench together and the same were disposed of by the common order. The Division Bench examined the matter at a greater detail and came to the conclusion that the incumbents were not entitled to the pay scale of the employees of BCCL or equivalent to the Government employees and accordingly set aside the order of learned Single Judge by order dated 21.1.2004. Hence, aggrieved against this order, all these three appeals have been preferred by the private respondents.

7. In this view of the matter, we are of opinion that the view taken by learned Single Judge of the High Court of Jharkhand appears to be correct and there is no ground to interfere with the impugned order. Consequently, the Civil Appeal is dismissed with no order as to costs.

8. All these appeals involve common question of law, therefore, they are disposed of by this common judgment. For the sake of convenient disposal of these appeals, the facts stated in C.A.No.6595 of 2005 are taken into consideration.

13. Hence, as a result of our above discussion, we do not find any merit in these appeals and the same are dismissed with no order as to costs.