The Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court provided relief to seven teachers who were terminated by the management of an English medium school in Jalna.
The bench of Justices Ravindra Ghuge and Y G Khobragade on Friday issued an order directing the reinstatement of seven teachers who were terminated by the management of M S English School, Jalna.
The teachers were among 42 educators who had filed a writ petition through advocate Talhar Ajay, over the paltry and irregular salary they were being paid and termination by the school management.
The teachers, with service periods ranging from six to 26 years, claimed that they had been terminated by the school without any prior notice or show cause, despite having received temporary appointment orders annually.
They further claimed that they were being paid irregularly and penalty amounts ranging from Rs 12,000 to Rs 30,000 were issued intermittently.
Expressing concern over the situation, the bench said, “If teachers have been working between six years to 26 years, as is the contention of the petitioners, it is too much to say that they are temporaries since every year they have been issued with temporary appointment orders.”
“In such schools, a trained graduate has to be regularised after completion of the probation period. If at all the contentions of these petitioners are true, they have been given a bad treatment, we cannot shut our eyes today,” it said.
The bench emphasised that even in the industrial sector, temporary appointments are subject to specific regulations, and the Industrial Employment Standing Orders Act mandates the regularisation of employment for individuals working for 240 days in a year.
The court rejected the school management’s plea stating that the case fell under the jurisdiction of the School Tribunal under the MPEPS Act.
As a provisional measure, the court stayed the termination order and directed the school management to deposit outstanding salaries and salaries up to November 2023, in the court.
Additionally, the court instructed the divisional deputy director of education of the Aurangabad division to collect detailed information about the school’s functioning and present a report.
The school management was asked to submit its reply before December 6.
