The Madras High Court in its order today held that there was no need to maintain parity in the pay scale of the head masters of primary schools and secondary grade teachers of the Government Higher Secondary schools.
Justice D Hariparanthaman gave the verdict dismissing the petitions filed by one S Arulappan and 129 others who challenged the government's refusal to continue the practice of paying primary school headmasters' pay to teachers in high/higher secondary schools if the latter had put in 10 to 20 years of service as ordered by a tribunal in 1998.
The Judge said the secondary grade teachers in the government schools were governed by the Tamil Nadu Educational Subordinate Service Rules and they came under the control of the Directorate of School Education.
The Primary School Headmasters fell under different service rules and governed by the Tamil Nadu Elementary Subordinate Service Rules and came under the Directorate of Elementary Education.
In 1998, the Tamil Nadu Administrative Tribunal ruled that the government must pay primary school headmasters' pay to teachers in high/higher secondary schools if the latter had put in 10 to 20 years of service since the cut off year 1988.
The tribunal order was confirmed by the high court on July 14, 2009. The state government's special leave petition was dismissed by the Supreme Court in April 2010 on a technical ground of delay.
Concurring with the submissions made by Advocate General A L Somayaji that the rejection of Special Leave petition in Supreme Court would not constitute a "binding precedent" to claim higher salary, the Judge rejected the claim of the petitioners.
Due to that round of litigation, senior school teachers had been receiving a higher salary all these years.
