Shri Guru Harkrishan Sahib Khalsa College vs State of Haryana and Others

Sanjay Kishan Kaul, C.J.—Some employees of the petitioner-college i.e. Shri Guru Harkrishan Sahib Khalsa College had filed a Civil Writ Petition No. 1168 of 1998 before this Court seeking grant of salary in accordance with the terms & conditions of the appointment letters and also in accordance with Section 6 of the Haryana Affiliated Colleges (Security of Service) Act, 1979 (hereinafter referred to as ''the said Act''). It was also alleged that the petitioner college was adopting the practice of obtaining signatures on higher pay while actual disbursement was less. This writ petition was allowed by a Division Bench of this Court with the direction that the remaining amount due to the petitioner-college would be paid to them within three months from the date of order i.e. 08.02.2000. A further direction was also issued to revise the pay fixation of the original petitioners in that petition in accordance with the directions issued by the State Government and if the amount due was not paid within three months, leave was granted to the State Government to take action against the petitioner college in accordance with Section 12 of the said Act. The Department of Education, Government of Haryana, sought compliance from the Governing Body of the college vide letter dated 06.07.2000 and were informed by the petitioner college vide letter dated 30.08.2000 that needful had been done. However, one of the ex-Lecturer of the college filed Civil Writ Petition No. 16312 of 2002 praying for grant of revised pay scales and release of all arrears in which orders were passed on 11.10.2002 that no separate directions were required in view of the directions already passed referred to aforesaid. However, this gave rise to the State Government to seek compliance report vide memo dated 01.01.2003 and to take action u/s 12 of the said Act. It was found on enquiry that the salary had not been paid as directed by this Court on 08.02.2000 aforesaid and the college had also failed to revise the salary of the employees in the revised scales despite the Court orders and thus a show cause notice dated 10.04.2003 was served upon the petitioner-college. A reply was received on 19.05.2003 stating that the petitioner college was not in a position to release the salary as the college was an un-aided institution and thus sought to rake up the issue of non-applicability of the provisions of the said Act. This plea based on the definition of an affiliated college was not accepted as the definition itself had been amended making the provisions of the said Act applicable to the petitioner college. In view of the recalcitrant attitude of the petitioner, the ''No Objection Certificate'' granted earlier on 08.07.1993 was withdrawn vide order dated 30.07.2003.

It is this order which is sought to be assailed in the present writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India. We may note that the employees have also filed two Contempt Petitions being COCP Nos. 171 of 2003 and 1326 of 2003. The present writ petition was admitted on 04.09.2003 and the operation of the impugned order was stayed.

Learned counsel for the petitioner before us submits that the college was actually closed in the year 2005 but Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee (S.G.P.C.) took a decision to revive the college in the year 2011. He submits that S.G.P.C. is agreeable to grant requisite pay scales to its employees as fixed by the State Government but prays that withdrawal of ''No Objection Certificate'' may be cancelled.

We emphasized the learned counsel for the petitioner that S.G.P.C. should be a model employer and service of education itself is a service of God. Thus, there should not be any issue of paying at least the Government Scales to build a reputable educational institution. Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that revised pay scales are being paid now and some of the petitioners have even been reinstated. We call upon the State Government to look into this matter and verify what has been stated by learned counsel for the petitioner. If the revised pay scales are now being paid and arrears cleared, the impugned order be recalled. The exercise aforesaid be carried out by the State Government within a maximum period of one month from today and in case some amount is still due, a period of one month be granted to the petitioner college to clear the outstanding and on full compliance the impugned order be withdrawn within a period of 15 days thereafter.

Petition accordingly stands disposed of.