RENU BALA v. THE STATE OF BIHAR & Ors.

Petitioner claims to be a teaching staff of Shri Guru Govind Singh College, Patna City. The said college was made a constituent college of the University in the year, 1986 along with other 35 colleges. It is alleged by the Petitioner that while other teaching staffs of the college have been paid not only their full salary regularly but even their arrears have been paid, the Petitioner stands discriminated in the matter of such payment of salary and arrears of salary. To that extent, the Petitioner has made a statement in paragraph no. 12 of the writ application which goes to show that Nawal Kishore Yadav, MLC, Hriday Narayan Singh (reportedly now MLA), Naresh Prasad Singh, Dig Vijay Singh and Anil Kumar Singh, Ambuj Kishore Jha and C.M.R. Saxena are such fortunate teachers of the college who have been given their full salary including their arrears. Mr. Dubey, further, submits that in fact there are several other persons who have also been paid their salary including arrear of salary and it is only the Petitioner and a few other persons who have been left over in the 2 matter of payment of salary and/or arrear of salary. Mr. Dubey has produced a notification of the Magadh University dated

8.5.2005 to show that pursuant submission of the Agarwal Commission Report and its acceptance by the Hon’ble Apex Court in Civil Appeal No. 6098 of 1997, the University has issued the order of absorption of the Petitioner as well as other 100 teaching employees of Shri Guru Govind Singh College, Patna City justifying the claim of arrears of salary and emoluments. The consequence of such absorption of service in the matter of payment of arrear of salary has however not been stated in the notification and thus normally this Court would have left the matter for the Respondents to determine in the first instance as with regard to the entitlement of payment of arrear salary and allowances of such absorbed teachers of the college including the petitioner but in a case like this where the petitioners has asserted that almost other teaching employees of the college including those whose names have mention in paragraph no. 12 of the writ application, have already been paid full salary and emoluments including arrears, there seems to be some obvious discrepancy and/or anomaly in the approach of the University of the college in making payment of arrears of salary to the teachers of the college. Accordingly, this Court directs the Vice Chancellor of the University to hold a personal enquiry as with regard to payment of salary and emoluments to all the 101 teaching employees of Shri Guru Govind Singh College, Patna City who stand absorbed in the service of the University by the notification of the University dated 8.5.2005 within a period of four weeks from the date of receipt of this order. He will thereafter submit such report to this Court as to 3 how and in which manner payment of salary including the arrears thereof was made on pick and choose basis and in case it is found by him that such payment of salary including the arrears on pick and choose basis was the result of any highhandedness or misconduct on the part of the concerned authority of the University and/or the Principal of the college, he will also indicate in the same report as to what action he intends to initiate against such officers of the University and the College. List this case after four weeks i.e. on 15th of May, 2008 within first five cases as a tied up matter. Let a copy of this order be given to Sri Yugal Kishore, Learned Senior Counsel for the Magadh University.” Pursuant thereto and a subsequent order dated 16.5.2008, the Vice Chancellor of the University has filed the enquiry report in his affidavit. Such report not only confirms the allegation made by the petitioner but spells out all the beans inasmuch as the Vice Chancellor in his such report has specifically admitted that payment of salary has been made to a large number of teachers of Shree Guru Govind Singh College even when there was no such direction by this Court for making payment of their salary. Apparently, the earlier stand of the respondent University and its authorities that there was no discrimination practiced in the matter of payment of salary of the teaching employees of Shree Guru Govind Singh College is 4 found to be incorrect. The Vice Chancellor however in his report has sought to explain that payment of salary to other persons teaching staff of the Shree Guru Govind Singh College has been made on their personal request on account of the same compelling reasons like marriage in their family or their illness or for some allied reasons. It has been stated that even the petitioner was paid a sum of Rs. 45,000/- towards the arrears of salary. Counsel for the petitioner does not dispute this position. He however says that when others were paid their full arrear of salary to the tune of rupees more than three lacs, her being denied full payment of her arrear salary amounts to clear discrimination. In the opinion of this Court, the University cannot be allowed to adopt adhocism even in the matter of payment of salary. The moment a person is found to have worked for the month, he or she also becomes entitled for payment of salary. The plea of the University that it is not receiving funds from the Government is not sustainable in the eyes of law as this issue is to be sorted out between the University and the Government. The paucity of fund cannot be made a 5 legitimate weapon only for denying payment of full arrear of salary of the petitioner alone because if others were paid their full arrear of salary, there was no reason for similar benefit not being extended to the petitioner. One could have appreciated such stand of the University had every teacher who were paid his salary out of turn was given such arrears of salary for an equal amount by adopting the method of pro-rata distribution. That having been not done, University cannot be allowed to take a plea of paucity of fund as a valid reason for non-payment of full arrear of salary of the petitioner. It has to be noted that the State Government has filed a separate affidavit claiming therein that it has released sufficient fund to the University as per the budgetary allocation for making full payment of salary including arrears of salary of the teaching staff of Shree Guru Govind Singh College and therefore, this Court is not going to accept the statement of the University that payment of salary including arrears thereof to the petitioner was on account of paucity of fund. Accordingly, this Court would direct the Vice Chancellor of the Magadh University to pay the legitimate salary and emolument of the petitioner as has been paid in case of the other teachers of the 6 college. The claim of the petitioner for payment of his arrear salary to the tune of Rs. 4,29,955/- as shown in the duly sanctioned and passed salary bills of the petitioner therefore must be processed and examined and paid by the authorities of the University within a period one month receipt/production of a copy of this order. With the aforesaid observation/direction, this application is disposed of. Rsh (Mihir Kumar Jha, J.)