Pran Gopal Roy vs Lakmi Banerjee

Satyabrata Sinha, J.—This application is directed against an order dated December 19, 1991, passed by the Sub-Inspector of Schools, Primary Education, Calcutta, Circle-ll, in terms whereof salaries of 5 teachers including the Petitioners, who are 3 in number, were directed to be held up.

The fact of the matter is not required to be stated in details in view of the order proposed to be passed* by me. Suffice it to say that an Administrator had been managing the affairs of the school. The said Administrator allegedly was appointed a long time back by the District Inspector of Schools (P.E), Calcutta.

The case made out in the affidavit-in-opposition appears to be that the Headmaster of the school has been withholding the attendance registers as a result whereof the Administrator had not been able to verify the same and monthly returns could not be sent to the appropriate authority for the purpose of making payment.

Learned Counsel appearing for the Petitioners, however, submits that the stand taken in the affidavit-in-opposition by the Respondents appears to be a mala fide one, inasmuch as admittedly payments have been made to Chinmoyee Gupta, who was one of the teachers named in the said order and other teachers. The learned Counsel points out that if the stand of the Respondents is correct, no payment whatsoever could have been made in favour of any teacher. It is not disputed that the Petitioners are approved teachers. It is also not disputed that the Petitioners are entitled to payment of their salaries in the event they have worked in the school.

It appears from the order-sheets maintained in the writ application as also in the contempt application, that orders for payment of salary have been passed from time to time. In this connection, reference may be made, inter alia, to the order dated January 20, 1992, passed by K. M. Yusuf J, and the order dated September 3, 1993, passed by S. Chatterji J.

Mr. Maiti appearing on behalf of the added Respondent, on the other hand, submits that the Petitioners intend to take salary without working and they have deliberately and willfully suppressed the attendance registers and other documents so as to prevent the Administrator or any other officer of the District Primary School Council to scrutinise the said attendance registers to pass the bills submitted by the concerned authorities.

Keeping in view the fact that the Petitioners are approved teachers, their, salaries could have been directed to be withheld by the Sub-Inspector of Schools only on assigning cogent reasons. Salary is a property within the meaning of Article300Aof the Constitution of India. Salary of an employee, therefore, cannot be withheld except for cogent reasons. If the Petitioners or any other teacher had not been taking classes or had not been attending school, appropriate departmental proceedings could have been initiated against them, but without arriving at a finding in that regard, and without initiating any such proceedings, no order and that too an unreasoned order could have been passed by the Sub-Inspector of Schools directing holding up of salaries of the Petitioners. The said order, therefore, in my opinion, cannot be sustained in law.

The Petitioners have not been paid salary for a long time. It is their definite case that they have ail along been working in the school. In fact Sardar Amjad Ali, learned Counsel appearing on behalf of the Petitioners has produced one teachers'' attendance register, before this Court. Mr. Maiti, however, states that the said attendance register is required to be scrutinised properly. Be that as it may, as I am of the opinion that no cogent reason has yet been assigned for withholding payment of salaries to the Petitioners, this application as also the proceeding for contempt are disposed of with the following directions.

The Petitioners shall certify that they have attended the school, and on filing of such certificate, the newly added Respondent, namely, Calcutta District Primary School Council shall make payment of a sum of Rs. 5,000 to each one of the Petitioners within one week thereafter. The balance amount shall be paid to the Petitioners within 5 weeks thereafter.

The Petitioner ho. 1 shall produce all the attendance Registers, including the attendance register which has been produced before me and other documents and papers which are within his power or possession, after putting initial on each page of such documents before the Chairman of the Respondent Council within one week from date. It will be open to the Chairman of the Respondent Council to depute an authorised officer to inspect the said attendance registers and other documents. It will also be open to the said officer so authorised by the Chairman to inspect other documents maintained in the school and/or in the office of the Council and/or in the office of the District inspector of Schools (P.E). The said authority shall also initial all the pages of the documents so inspected by him.

On the basis of such inspection, the said authority shall submit a report to the Chairman of the Council, whereafter the Council shall take an appropriate decision and pass a reasoned order. In the event the Council finds that adverse report has been submitted against the Petitioners, an opportunity of hearing shall be given to the Petitioners. The Petitioners shall also be entitled to file a written representation. A copy of such report, it goes without saying, shall also be furnished to the Petitioners.

It is made clear that in the event it is found that the Petitioners have filed a wrong certificates or if it is found that the Petitioners were not entitled to the salary on the basis of such certificate, it. would be open to the competent authorities to initiate any disciplinary proceeding or any other proceeding as'' may be permissible in law.

Keeping in view the fact that an Administrator is managing the affairs of the school for a long time, the West Bengal Board of Primary Education is hereby requested to see that an election of the Managing Committee be held forthwith, and not later than 4 months from the date of communication of this order. In the meantime, it will be apposite of the West Bengal Board of Primary Education nominates another Administrator in place of the existing Administrator.

This order is being passed keeping in view the peculiar facts and circumstances of the case and that the present dispute has arisen because some teachers do not see eye to eye with the Administrator who has been functioning for a long time.

Learned Counsel for the parties may take gist of the operative portion of the order and communicate the same to the Chairman of the Council who is directed to act on such communication.

If applications are filed for certified copy of the order, office is directed to supply the same expeditiously.