Viman Vaman Awale vs Gangadhar Makhriya Charitable Trust ...

Dispute in this appeal pertains to the seniority of the appellant vis-a-vis respondent No.4. Both the appellant as well as respondent No.4 are working as teachers in Seth Gangadhar Makhriya High School, Mahabaleshwar, District Satara in Maharashtra. It is not in dispute that the appellant had joined the said school as Assistant Teacher before respondent No.4 and was senior to him in the post of Assistant Teacher. However, respondent No.4 had acquired B.Ed. degree prior to the appellant and on that basis he is treated senior to the appellant in the category of 'Trained Graduate Teachers'. Whether this consequence follows as a result of the rules is the matter of examination in the present case.

The reason given by the School Tribunal in accepting the claim of respondent No.4 is that at the time of entry of both these persons as Assistant Teachers in the School, both of them were not having B.Ed. qualification but were only D.Ed. Therefore, they were placed in Category- D of Schedule 'F'. Further, as far as B.Ed. qualification was concerned, the same was acquired by the appellant in the year 1986, whereas respondent No.4 got this qualification on 31.05.1984. According to the School Tribunal, seniority is to be considered from the date of acquisition of this professional qualification, that is being the 'Trained Teacher'. In this context, the School Tribunal took note of the fact that respondent No.3 School is a Secondary School, having classes of V to X and as such, as per Rule 3(1)(b), the required qualification must be graduate teacher possessing bachelor's degree in teaching and five years teaching experience and out of this two years experience shall be after acquiring bachelor's degree. Further, Schedule-B of the Maharashtra Employees of Private Schools (Conditions of Service) Rules, 1981 (hereinafter referred to as the 'Rules') provides the degree qualification for secondary teacher as Graduate plus B.Ed. On that reckoning, the date of acquiring the professional qualification becomes relevant, which was B.Ed., and since it is respondent No.4 who stole the march over the appellant by acquiring this qualification earlier in point of time, he was to be treated as senior to the appellant. The School Tribunal, in support of this conclusion that the date of acquisition of professional qualification would be the date of determining the seniority, relied upon a Full Bench judgment of the Bombay High Court in the case of Shri Vaijanath s/o. Tatyarao Shinde v. The Secretary, Marathwada Shikshan Prasarak Mandal (Writ Petition No. 4907 of 2002 decided on 15.11.2006).

The High Court, while dismissing the writ petition of the appellant, has concurred with the aforesaid view of the School Tribunal.

(1) Every Management shall prepare and maintain seniority list of the teaching staff including head master and Assistant Head master and non- teaching staff in the school in accordance with the Guidelines laid down in Schedule “F”. The Seniority List so prepared shall be circulated amongst the members of the staff concerned and their signatures for having received a copy of the list shall be obtained. Any subsequent change made in the list from time to time shall also be brought to the notice of the members of the staff concerned and their signature for having noted the change shall be obtained.

Note 1.– The eligibility list for promotion shall be prepared with reference to the date of completion by the officers of the prescribed qualifying service in the respective grade/posts.

Accordingly, this appeal is allowed. Judgment of the High Court is set aside and a direction is issued to appoint the appellant as Head of the School by replacing respondent No.4 therefrom. This direction shall be carried out within a period of four weeks from today.

Since the respondents have not appeared, we are not making any order as to costs.

August 13, 2014.