HC sets aside order mandating private schools to implement pay commission

The Delhi High Court has set aside a single judge’s order directing private schools in the national capital to implement the Sixth and Seventh Central Pay Commissions (CPC) and pay prescribed salaries and benefits to their teaching and non-teaching staff.

A Bench of Justices Subramonium Prasad and Vimal Kumar Yadav observed that the schools’ arguments regarding teachers’ eligibility for CPC benefits, their mode of appointment and the right to increase fees had not been considered in the single-judge’s ruling of November 2023.

“In the opinion of this court, these issues were raised before the learned Single Judge but the same have not been referred to in the impugned Judgment,” the Bench noted.

The court also disagreed with the decision to form committees to examine fee hikes, salary payments and eligibility for CPC benefits. “This amounts to relegating the judicial function to the committees,” the Bench remarked.

It added, “Judicial functions cannot be relegated to these committees… At best, the learned Single Judge could have formed these committees to furnish a report to the court and then the court ought to have adjudicated upon the issues raised by the teachers and the schools without giving the committees the power to decide the issues.”

Accordingly, the Division Bench set aside the order and remanded the matter to the roster bench for fresh adjudication.

The order under challenge, passed by Justice Chandra Dhari Singh on November 17, 2023, had held that private school employees have a vested right to receive pay and benefits under CPC recommendations and that schools cannot plead lack of funds to deny these.

“No school can seek a waiver of the recommendations by citing any reason whatsoever,” Justice Singh had said, also holding that unaided minority schools were not exempt.

Both teachers and schools had challenged the order. While teachers objected to committees deciding their claims, schools contended their right to fix fees had not been considered.