Uttarakhand High Court
WPSS/1810/2022 on 9 October, 2025
Author: Manoj Kumar Tiwari
Bench: Manoj Kumar Tiwari
2023:UHC:7121
Office Notes,
reports, orders
or proceedings
SL.
Date or directions COURT'S OR JUDGE'S ORDERS
No.
and Registrar's
order with
Signatures
WPSS No. 1810 of 2022
With
WPSS No. 1861 of 2022
WPSS No. 1863 of 2022
WPSS No. 1869 of 2022
WPSS No. 1870 of 2022
Hon'ble Manoj Kumar Tiwari, J
1. Mr. M.K. Chand, learned counsel for
the petitioners.
2. Mr. Narayan Dutt, learned Standing
Counsel for the State of Uttarakhand.
3. Since common questions of fact and
law are involved in these petitions,
therefore, these petitions are clubbed
together and decided by this common
judgment. However, for the sake of
brevity and convenience, facts of WPSS
No. 1810 of 2022 alone are being
considered and discussed.
4. Writ Petition (S/S) No. 1810 of 2022
has been filed by sixteen persons who
are serving as Assistant Teacher/Head
Teacher in different Primary School &
Government Junior High School in
District Champawat.
5. Petitioners were given benefit of
Government Order dated 01.03.2009
issued by Principal Secretary (Finance),
Government of Uttarakhand and their
pay scale was upgraded. The upgraded
pay scale, given in terms of Government
Order dated 01.03.2009, is now being
sought to be recovered from the
petitioners on the ground that it was
wrongly paid to them and petitioners
were not entitled to the said benefit.
Thus, feeling aggrieved, petitioners have
2023:UHC:7121
approached this Court seeking the
following reliefs:-
(i) Issue a writ order or direction in the nature of
certiorari quashing the impugned order dated
04.08.2012 passed by Director Elementary
Education Uttarakhand Dehradun (Annexure
no. 10) and order dated 20.08.2022
(Annexure-11) passed by District Education
Officer (Elementary) Champawat.
(ii) Issue a writ or direction in the nature of
mandamus commanding and directing the
respondents authorities to grant minimum pay
scale i.e. Rs. 17140/- to the petitioners as per
6th Pay Commission from the respective dates
of their promotion.
6. Petitioners had earlier filed writ
petitions challenging the decision taken
by Director that petitioners hold Group
'B' posts, thus are not entitled to
protection against recovery of excess
payment made to them. Their writ
petitions were allowed by this Court, vide
judgment dated 09.05.2022 rendered in
WPSS No. 1908 of 2019 and other
connected petitions; the order passed by
Director, Primary Education dated
01.02.2019 was set aside by holding that
as per the Service Rules, Teachers of
Government Primary School &
Government Junior High School,
including Head Teachers, are Group 'C'
employees and the matter was relegated
to Director, Primary Education to
reconsider the issue.
7. Pursuant to the judgment dated
09.05.2022 passed by this Court,
Director, Primary Education has passed
another order dated 04.08.2022, wherein
it is reiterated that due to promotion
and/or grant of selection grade /
promotion pay scale, Teachers of
Government Primary School and
Government Junior High School get pay
2023:UHC:7121
scale equivalent or more than Group 'B'
employees of the State Government,
therefore, petitioners cannot be treated
as Group 'C' employee.
8. Learned counsel for petitioners is
right in submitting that Director cannot
sit in judgment over the decision of this
Court rendered in WPSS No. 1908 of
2019, where it was held that teachers
serving in such schools are holding
Group 'C' post.
9. Learned counsel for the petitioners
further submits that it is nobody's case
that petitioners played fraud or they
were in any manner instrumental in
getting excess payment; he submits that
whatever amount was paid to petitioners
was as per the Government Policy,
therefore, State Government cannot now
recover the amount paid to petitioners at
the fag end of their service career.
10. Learned counsel for the petitioners
relied upon a judgment rendered by this
Court in the case of WPSS No. 335 of
2023 and submitted that since the issue
involved in this batch of writ petitions
has been dealt with in the said
judgment, therefore, these writ petitions
deserve to be decided in terms of the
judgment dated 18.09.2025 rendered in
WPSS No. 335 of 2023 & other
connected matters.
11. Learned State Counsel concedes
that since the issue involved is common,
therefore, these writ petitions can be
decided in terms of said judgment.
12. Accordingly, the writ petitions are
decided in terms of judgment dated
18.09.2025 rendered in WPSS No. 335 of
2023:UHC:7121
2023. It is made clear that this Court has
not expressed any opinion on the re-
fixation of pay of the petitioners and
Departmental Authorities shall be at
liberty to re-fix the pay of petitioners at
the appropriate level, as per applicable
Government Policy/Rules.
(Manoj Kumar Tiwari, J)
09.10.2025
Aswal
NITI RAJ Digitally signed by NITI RAJ SINGH ASWAL
DN: c=IN, o=HIGH COURT OF UTTARAKHAND, ou=HIGH COURT OF
UTTARAKHAND,
2.5.4.20=eacc6757ee7881e933ff8934f07477005aa85f9802a3a08b08d136951
SINGH ASWAL
2ea30f3, postalCode=263001, st=UTTARAKHAND,
serialNumber=44EB54CBF00B7698CB6F10C2CE3D26F5C22DACF4F4610C1FE
58A58531726FBB0, cn=NITI RAJ SINGH ASWAL
Date: 2025.10.09 07:05:45 -07'00'
