Respondent 1 v. A.P. Residential Educational Institutions Society

(Per G. Rohini, J) This appeal is preferred against the order of the learned Single Judge dated 26.8.2011 in W.P.No.21210 of 2011. The respondent No.3 in the writ petition i.e., A.P. Residential Educational Institutions Society (for short, ‘APREI Society’) is the appellant before us. The respondents 1 to 120 herein (hereinafter referred to as ‘the writ petitioners’)filed the said writ petition aggrieved by the action of the respondents in not extending the benefit of pay scales granted under G.O.Ms.No.99, dated 16.7.2011 to them on par with the other teachers appointed in A.P. Residential Educational Institutions Society on contract basis. The learned Single Judge allowed the writ petition as prayed for. Hence the present writ appeal. We have heard Sri K. Durga Prasad, the learned counsel appearing for the appellant/APREI Society, Sri M. Panduranga Rao, the learned counsel appearing for the respondents 1 to 120/writ petitioners and the learned Government Pleader for School Education appearing for the State.

While submitting that under G.O.Ms.No.99, dated 16.7.2011, minimum time scale of pay has been extended only to the contract personnel in APREI Society, it is contended by Sri K. Durga Prasad that the writ petitioners who are appointed in Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas and are working at present in the said schools are not entitled to the benefit of G.O.Ms.No.99, dated 16.7.2011. It is thus contended that the order under appeal cannot be sustained. APREI Society is an autonomous organisation under the control of the State Government and being run with the State Government Funds. The writ petitioners were appointed by the APREI Society in pursuance of the notification dated 16.5.2005 inviting applications to fill up the posts of Post Graduate Teachers (PGT) and Trained Graduate Teachers (TGT) on contract basis in various subjects in Telugu and English Medium Schools under the control of the APREI Society.

It is not in dispute that altogether 200 candidates including the writ petitioners were selected and appointed pursuant to the said notification dated 16.5.2005. Though they were appointed on contract basis, admittedly the appointments were made following due process of selection. By G.O.Ms.No.93, School Education (CSS.RE) Department, dated 5.7.2005, the Government of A.P. accorded sanction for establishment of 94 Katurba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas (hereinafter referred to as ‘KGBV Schools’) in the State from the academic year 2005-2006. The said schools which are residential schools with boarding facilities are proposed to be set up for the benefit of girls in educationally backward blocks in the State. All the said 94 schools are under the management of APREI Society to be run with the financial aid by both the Government of India and the State Governments in the ratio of 75 : 25. All the petitioners herein being women candidates were given the posting in KGBV Schools, which are the residential schools for girls, whereas the other candidates selected pursuant to the said notification, dated 16.5.2005 were given posting in the residential schools of APREI Society.

Be it noted that the appointment orders to all the selected candidates, including the writ petitioners were issued by the APREI Society and all of them were appointed on consolidated pay of Rs.7,000/- and Rs.6,000/- per month for PGTs and TGTs respectively subject to same terms and conditions. While so, by G.O.Ms.No.99, School Education (SE.GENL.II) Department, dated 16.7.2011, it was ordered by the State Government that the contract personnel working in APREI Society shall be extended the approved minimum time scale of pay in Revised Pay Scales, 2010 w.e.f. the academic year 2011-12. In pursuance thereof, the APREI Society issued proceedings dated 18.7.2011 requesting all the Principals of the Schools of the APREI Society to take necessary action for payment of enhanced remuneration to the Contract Resident Teachers working in the residential schools of the APREI Society. However the said benefit has not been extended to the writ petitioners i.e., Contract Resident Teachers working in KGBV Schools.

When the said action was assailed before this Court, it was contended on behalf of APREI Society that the writ petitioners were selected and appointed only for the purpose of KGBV Schools which are girls institutions and that they joined in the said schools willingly and therefore the pay scale granted in G.O.Ms.No.99, dated 16.7.2011 cannot be automatically extended to them since G.O.Ms.No.99 is applicable only to the contract personnel in the residential schools of the APREI Society. The learned Single Judge held that G.O.Ms.No.99, dated

16.7.2011 applies to PGTs and TGTs appointed by the APREI Society and there is no justification for differentiation made between teachers working in the residential schools of the APREI Society and the KGBV Schools at the time of implementation of the said G.O. Accordingly, the writ petition was allowed as prayed for. While hearing this appeal, having opined that it is necessary to hear Rajiv Vidya Mission and Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya also for determination of the controversy involved, this Court by order dated

19.04.2012 has suo motu impleaded the State of A.P., represented by its Principal Secretary, Secondary School Education, the Project Director, Rajiv Vidya Mission (SSA), Government of A.P., and Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya Society as respondents to this writ appeal. Accordingly all of them filed their counter-affidavits. In the counter-affidavit filed by the Deputy Secretary to the Government, School Education Department, it is explained that KGBV Schools are fully funded by the Government of India and they are established under a temporary scheme to provide quality education to the girl-students in the remote areas. It is contended that the writ petitioners were appointed in KGBV Schools on contract basis and that they are under the control of the State Project Director, Rajiv Vidya Mission, A.P., Hyderabad and that they cannot be placed on par with the Contract Resident Teachers working in the A.P. Residential Schools. It is further contended that the increase of the salaries to the petitioners involves a policy decision and that the APREI Society cannot extend the benefit of scale of pay to the writ petitioners without the approval of the Primary Education Department of the State Government. In the counter-affidavit filed by the Secretary, A.P. Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya Society, it is stated that the said society was registered on 13.10.2011 in pursuance of G.O.Rt.No.758, dated

13.10.2011 and that the salaries of the Contract Resident Teachers of KGBV Schools are paid from the grants released by the Government of India and the State Governments in the ratio of 75 : 25. It is also stated that the writ petitioners were recruited and deputed by APREI Society to work as Contract Resident Teachers in KGBV Schools and thus they are in the service of the APREI Society itself. It is also pointed out that by the date of the appointment of the writ petitioners, Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya Society was not even formed and that in fact it has been registered very recently. It is further stated that the remuneration of the contract resident teachers in KGBV Schools has been enhanced from Rs.6,000/- to Rs.8,000/- per month and that any further enhancement can be made only with the concurrence of the Central Government. On behalf of the APREI Society, an additional affidavit has been filed stating that Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya Society has been established in terms of the permission granted under G.O.Rt.No.758, School Education (PE-SSA) Department, dated 13.10.2011, for the purpose of running all KGBV Schools in the State hitherto under the control of APREI Society, A.P. Social Welfare Residential Educational Institutions Society and A.P. Tribal Welfare Residential Educational Institutions Society by a single society. It is contended that the writ petitioners were allotted to the institutions funded by the Government of India and functioning under SPD Rajiv Vidya Mission and they are governed by the guidelines of the scheme under which they are working. Sri K. Durga Prasad, the learned counsel for the appellant while reiterating the contents of the additional affidavit submitted that the APREI Society cannot bear the financial burden of regular scale of pay to all the petitioners since the actual number of vacancies under APREI Society are less than the Contract Resident Teachers working in KGBV Schools and therefore it is not feasible to accommodate them in the A.P. Residential Schools. Having given our thoughtful consideration to the submissions made on either side and having perused the material available on record, we do not find any justification in the action of the appellant in denying the scale of pay granted under G.O.Ms.No.99, dated

16.7.2011 to the writ petitioners. Admittedly the writ petitioners were selected pursuant to the notification issued by the APREI Society against the sanctioned vacancies. They were appointed by the APREI Society and even the contracts were entered into between the petitioners and the APREI Society. Therefore the mere fact that they were given the postings in the KGBV Schools does not bring them under the employment of KGBV Society. In fact, the said society was not in existence by the date of appointment of the petitioners. As could be seen from the additional affidavit filed by APREI Society, the AP KGBV Society has been registered on 13.10.2011 i.e., after the disposal of the writ petition and then all the KGBV Schools have been brought under the control of the said society. It is also relevant to note that out of the 200 candidates selected pursuant to the notification dated 16.5.2005, 120 candidates i.e., the writ petitioners were posted in KGBV Schools in view of the fact that all the writ petitioners are women teachers and that it is necessary to post them in KGBV Schools which are residential schools for girls. Admittedly the writ petitioners were not informed of the fact that the KGBV Schools are established under a different scheme of the Government of India nor their consent was taken before posting them in the said schools. Therefore, as rightly held by the learned Single Judge, for all purposes the writ petitioners shall be treated as employees of the APREI Society only. We have also observed that the posts notified in the notification dated 16.5.2005 were shown only as the sanctioned posts of APREI Society. It is also not a case where the writ petitioners were posted in KGBV Schools as per their ranking in the selection list issued in pursuance of the notification dated

16.5.2005. On the other hand, they were required to work in KGBV Schools to ensure that women teachers are posted in the said schools which are set up with boarding facilities exclusively for girls. The APREI Society itself has admitted that the petitioners were not sent on deputation. Thus it is apparent that the writ petitioners who were selected following due process of selection and appointed by APREI Society along with other similarly selected persons were posted in KGBV Schools by the APREI Society on their own to meet the administrative exigency. Absolutely no case could be made out by the respondents to show that at the time of appointment and giving postings to the writ petitioners in KGBV Schools or thereafter any different considerations were adopted and any differentiation was made between the writ petitioners and the other teachers posted in the residential schools of APREI Society.

Therefore the contention now sought to be advanced in the additional affidavit filed on behalf of the appellant that the writ petitioners were appointed in KGBV Schools from out of the selection list prepared pursuant to the notification dated 16.5.2005 and that APREI Society is neither competent nor authorized to extend the benefit of G.O.Ms.No.99, dated 16.7.2011 to the writ petitioners on the face of it is an after-thought and untenable. In fact it runs contrary to their own stand taken in the counter-affidavit filed in the writ petition. On a reading of G.O.Ms.No.99, dated 16.7.2011, it appears to us that the said order applies to all the contract personnel working in the APREI Society. As expressed above, the writ petitioners are the employees working on contract basis with APREI Society alone. Therefore, impugned action of denying the benefit of G.O.Ms.No.99, dated 16.7.2011 them amounts invidious discrimination offending Article 14 of the Constitution of India.