Calcutta High Court (Appellete Side)
The State Of West Bengal & Ors vs Ar Mahitosh Das & Anr on 17 July, 2023
12 17.7.2023 MAT 618 of 2021
Ct-08
with
I.A No. CAN 2 of 2021
The State of West Bengal & Ors.
Vs.
ar Mahitosh Das & Anr.
Mr. Supriyo Chattopadhyay
Mr. Suman Dey
... For the Appellants/Applicant
Mr. Ekramul Bari
Mr. Siddhartha Sarkar Mandal
Sk. Imtiazuddin
... For the Writ-petitioner/Respondent
The appeal is arising out of the judgment
passed by a learned Single Judge on 7th
November, 2019 in a writ petition in which the
writ petitioner has claimed higher scale of pay
upon enhancing his qualification of post
graduation in History through a correspondence
course offered by the Burdwan University,
without prior permission from the concerned
District Inspector of Schools (Secondary
Education).
Indisputably the petitioner got admission to
pursue one year Bridge Course in History on 9th
December, 1998 upon obtaining prior permission
from the Organising Managing Committee of the
concerned school. The school was recognized
subsequently i.e. 1st May, 1999 by the West
Bengal Board of Secondary Education as junior
high school i.e. upto Class VIII.
The service of the writ petitioner as Organizer
Teacher was approved by the District Inspector
of Schools concerned on 1st May, 1999. The writ
petitioner after successful completion of the
Birdge course got admission in M.A course on
27th January, 2000. The school authority on 2nd
January, 2003 applied before the District
Inspector of Schools (Secondary Education),
South 24 Parganas for M.A scale of pay in favour
of the petitioner. The District Inspector of
Schools (Secondary Education), South 24
Parganas rejected the said prayer on 14th
January, 2003 merely on the ground that no
prior permission had been sought for before and
no prior permission was obtained from the said
office and as such the said authority was not in a
position to sanction higher scale of pay, if the
petitioner passed the examination successfully.
The said reason appears to be contrary to the
decision of this court in the case of Md. Adeel Uz
Zaman Vs. State of West Bengal & Ors.,
reported in 2021 SCC Online Cal 293 : 2021
Lab IC 2074.
In a similar situation a coordinate bench set
aside the order passed by the District Inspector
of Schools and directed the D.I to consider the
higher scale of pay afresh. It was reiterated that
it would not be open for D.I to reject the prayer of
higher scale of pay on the ground of absence of
prior permission. However, we make it clear that
the appellants has fairly submitted that the West
Bengal Schools (Control of Expenditure) Act,
2005 will not be applicable in the instant case
and that would not be a bar for consideration of
the prayer of higher scale of pay upon acquiring
higher qualification.
The District Inspector of Schools (Secondary
Education), South 24 Parganas, shall consider
the matter of the petitioner keeping in mind the
observation made in paragraph 10 in Md. Adeel
Uz Zaman(supra) by a coordinate bench. The
paragraph 10 of the said judgment is given
below:-
"10. There cannot be any doubt that a person
with higher qualification would be expected to
have better knowledge in the subject and the
students are likely to be benefited by reason of
acquiring such higher qualification. The benefit of
higher qualification is no doubt benefit of (sic.) the
teacher in terms of money but the students are the
beneficiary of such acquired knowledge. The
institution is as such benefited. It would be the
endeavour of all schools to have academic
excellence and it is the duty of the State to
encourage academic excellence in all the
institutions since the ultimate beneficiary would
be the students. We feel that some guidelines
should be in place to decide a case like the
present one as absence of any such guidelines
may lead to arbitrary rejection of a deserving
candidate."
The entire exercise shall be completed within
a period of four weeks from the date of
communication of this order, after giving
reasonable opportunity of hearing to the school
and the teacher concerned. The reasoned order
shall be passed within the aforesaid period and
shall be communicated to the writ petitioner
within two weeks thereafter.
The impugned order is modified to the
aforesaid extent.
On such consideration the appeal being MAT
618 of 2021 is disposed of.
In view of disposal of the appeal CAN 2 of
2021 is accordingly disposed of.
(Uday Kumar, J.) (Soumen Sen, J.)
