No pay disparity between teachers of govt and private schools: Delhi HC

New Delhi: The teachers of unaided private schools are entitled to same pay and emoluments as those of government schools, the Delhi High Court has held.

Rejecting an appeal by a private school, a bench of Acting Chief Justice A K Sikri and Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw upheld the single judge's order directing Rukmini Devi Jaipuria School, Rajpura Road, to pay arrears of salary to its teachers with effect from January one, 1996.

Directing the school to pay the arrears in four weeks, the bench also imposed a cost of Rs 30,000 on it.

The court dismissed the school's argument that the pay commission recommendations are only applicable to the government-aided schools and not to private schools. The court accepted the contention of Ashok Agarwal, the counsel for the teachers, that it's a travesty of justice that the teachers are denied their lawful salary without any justification.

The court also held that the employees of all unaided recognised private schools are entitled to benefits of pay and emoluments from January 1, 1996, the date the fifth pay commission recommendations became applicable and the schools cannot deny or delay the same on the ground that it could not recover fee from the students.

According to the teachers, they were paid the arrears by the school with effect from April 1997 instead of January 1996.

Their lawyer argued before the court that many private schools are violating the recommendations of the Pay Commissions even though they have collected surplus funds from the students.

"Their audit records show that the private schools have crores of rupees lying as surplus which they collected from the students on the pretext of implementing the Fifth and Sixth Pay Commission," Agarwal contended.

He submitted that Section 10 of Delhi School Education Act mandates that the employees of all the unaided private recognised schools are entitled to benefit of pay and allowances etc as per the government school teachers.

HC sets aside Bank's order rejecting education loan plea

Chennai: The Madras High Court has held that a nationalised bank cannot deny a student-applicant an educational loan solely on the ground that admission was secured under the management quota.

Justice M Jaichandren set aside an order of a nationalised bank rejecting an engineering student J Pandiyarajan's's educational loan application, as he had been admitted under the management quota.
   
The judge applied the principles laid down in an earlier judgement and said the bank was not justified in rejecting the student's education loan request.
   
"There is no prohibition to sanction education loan to students admitted in the management quota," the Judge said and added that if the banks stand was accepted, no student admitted under the management quota, in any private self-financing college, would  be in a position to secure an education loan.
   
This would defeat the purpose for which the Union Government and RBI had introduced the scheme.
   
Directing the student to resubmit an application to the bank for a loan, the judge said the bank should pass appropriate orders as per the regulations and guidelines laid down for granting educational loans.
   
The petitioner, studying B.E (Mechanical) course in a private institution, here, had challenged a February 13 last order of the Indian Overseas Bank's branch in Salem district, rejecting his request for educational loan.     

He had sought a consequent direction to the bank to provide him the financial assistance. 

HC gives Govt, SFDC liberty to take action on schools

Chennai: The Madras HC gave TN govt. and School Fee Determination Committee (SFDC), the liberty to take appropriate action against schools not covered under the May 3 court order collecting higher fees than  that prescribed by the committee.

Passing orders on a petition filed by the government seeking clarifications in the court order, a Division Bench told the government to issue necessary circulars on collection of fees and to ensure strict compliance of the court order.
  
The Bench reiterated that as per its interim arrangement, only those schools which had challenged the school fees fixed by the SFDC could collect 15 per cent over and above that fixed by the committee for the academic year 2012-13.
  
Stating that the increase in fee was subject to the final orders to be passed by the committee, the Bench also pointed out that the hike was only for 2012-13 and not previous years. The Bench said its May 3 order, which included the names of the petitioner schools, had been posted on the High Court website.
  
The court made it mandatory for schools, covered by its order to display in their respective notice boards the fee fixed by the panel, the writ petition numbers and the revised fee according to the court order and separately showing the sum payable towards the 15 per cent increase.
  
Similarly, receipts should also be issued to parents/students indicating separately the fees to be collected as per the committee's original order and the increase, the Bench said.
  
The Bench directed the government to ensure that the names of the petitioner schools were displayed on notice boards in the district education offices. 

460 clear written exam for the position of civil judges

Chennai: In all 460 candidates of the 6702, who had appeared in written examinations conducted by the Madras High Court for selection of 185 civil judges for Tamil Nadu have been shortlisted for viva voce (oral test) scheduled to commence in the last week of this month.
   
Over 10,000 candidates had applied and nearly 9,000 had appeared for the written tests in four papers on March 24 and 25 last, the Registrar General said in a press release.
   
Stating that the process of sending interview cards for those called for the oral examination would commence from May seven, the Registrar General said that SC/ST candidates who had secured 30 marks and above in each of the four papers, all BC/MBC and DC candidates securing over 35 marks and general category candidates scoring 40 marks and above had been shortlisted for the oral test.
     
On January 13 the state government had issued an order enabling the High Court to undertake the recruitment of civil judges as a one time measure, after consulting the state Public Service Commission, and a subsequent notification on January 21, calling for applications for appointment of civil judges.

HC restrains schools from enhancing fee

Chandigarh: The Punjab and Haryana high ourt issued directions that no school would enhance the school fee in Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh, without the consent of the education boards to which the schools are affiliated.
   
The bench has also issued directions to ensure that no books other than NCERT were prescribed in Punjab schools.    

The bench, comprising Justice S K Mittal and Justice T P S  Mann, has held that schools must take the education boards into confidence before any fee hike.
   
The bench also directed that schools would submit their profit and loss statement for the past five years to the Central Board of Secondary Education, ICSE or Punjab School Education Board whereever they were affiliated with.
   
The bench also issued directions that no CBSE-affiliated school would prescribe the books published by those other than NCERT.
   
The directions were issued on three PILs filed on similar issues. One of the petitions had been filed by 10 students from Malerkotla while two other petitioners are city-based NGOs Anti Corruption and Crime Investigation Cell and All India Crime Preventing Society.
   
The petitioners referred to the directions of the Supreme Court in Modern School vs Union of India, which stated that each school would maintain the account on the principles of non business organisation.

Citing the example of fee hike by a school Sita Grammar School in Malerkotla, the petitioner stated that in academic session 2009, the school was charging fee that included admission fee of Rs 3500, annual charges of Rs 4500 besides quarterly tuition fee, computer fee, science fee, conveyance fee and building fund.
   
The fee was subsequently hiked in the following years. In academic year starting in 2012, the fee had been hiked to annual charges eleven thousand rupees, development fee two thousand rupees besides other fee charged at quarterly basis.
   
The petitioner said that as per calculation, in 2010, total amount of 1.08 crores rupees had been collected by the school as annual charges while the same was 1.87 crore rupees for the session in 2011.
   
This is besides the students being forced to buy stationary and school dress from school shops.
   
The bench has issued directions to Punjab School Education Board, ICSE and CBSE to file affidavit about the schools in their jurisdiction and also have all the schools file profit and loss account for the past five  years.
   
The bench also asked the boards to file a response as to how it was being ensured that teachers were getting salaries as per norms and the Right to Education Act was being followed by these schools. 

HC order to frame guideline for handicapped medical students

Mumbai: High court has ordered Medical Council of India to frame guidelines for assessment of disability of candidates to determine their fitness for pursuing graduate or post-graduate medical courses.

HC observed this while hearing  a petition filed by Dr Annasaheb Kadam. Kadam has completed his MBBS degree course and now wants to pursue a post-graduate medical course. Division bench of chief justice Mohit Shah and justice Niteen Jamdar observed that it is necessary to frame guidelines for physically handicapped candidates.

No loud speaker permission required for educational activities: HC

Mumbai: High Court has observed that if any area within a 100m periphery of schools is designated as a silence zone, the institutions will not require any prior permission to use loud speaker for educational activities.

A division bench of Chief Justice Mohit Shah and Justice NM Jamdar nullified  decision of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) declaring Raja Shivaji Vidyasankul at Dadar as a silence zone, the HC said the school does not require prior permission from police and local planning authority for school-related activities, yet school have to obtain permission for commercial activities. 

Bench gave this order while hearing petition filed by city-based Indian Education Society. The institution had approached the HC challenging the corporation’s decision to declare one of their schools, Raja Shivaji Vidyasankul at Dadar, as a silence zone.

HC directed Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) to clarify its stand on impracticability of minimum standards for residential and silence zones. The court has given the MoEF time up to June 22 for responding to the observation.

Madras HC issues notice to Centre and CBSE

Madurai: The Madras High Court bench here has ordered notice to the Centre and CBSE seeking to reply within four weeks on a petition seeking to conduct All India Engineering/Architectural Entrance Examination and All India Pre-Medical/Pre-Dental Entrance Examinations with question papers in regional languages listed in Schedule VIII of the constitution.
  
The petitioner K Pachaimal, a retired Tamil Teacher, said CBSE was conducting All India Common Entrance Examination for the admission to Engineering, Architecture, Medical and Dental Courses.
   
She said students who completed their Higher Secondary Examination through Tamil as  medium of Instruction would be forced to appear in the Common Entrance Examination either in English or Hindi, which was against their right to equality.
  
A Majority of these students are from urban poor, rural and weaker section of the society and have knowledge in their necessary subjects through their mother Tongue. But they will lose their opportunity as the question papers were prepared in English and Hindi.
   
The petitioner said students studying in their mother tongue should be given an equal opportunity to appear in the examination.
   
Justice Chitra Venkataraman and Justice R Karuppiah ordered notice to the Centre and CBSE seeking reply a four weeks.