Judgement

CHINNAPPA REDDY, J.:- The appellants in the Civil Appeal and the petitioners in the Writ Petitions are all trained Graduates, that is to say, all of them possess the B.Ed. or B.T. degree in addition to the B.A. Degree. They are teachers in Government schools in the State of Haryana. They did not possess the B. Ed. or B.T. degree when they joined service initially. They acquired the B.Ed. or B.T. degree qualification subsequent to their joining service which was between the years 1953 and 1973. Some of them acquired the B.Ed. or B.T. degree qualification before September 5, 1979 and in some cases after September 5, 1979. The importance of the date September 5, 1979 will become evident as we proceed to state the facts. It appears that in the Haryana Educational Service, there were two categories of teachers described as Masters and Basic Trained teachers. 25% of the posts of Masters were reserved for promotion from the posts of Basic Trained teachers. Masters could be promoted to higher posts. There appears to have been some dissatisfaction regarding the scales of pay for teachers and so in 1957, there was a revision of the scales of pay by an order dated July 23, 1957. All teachers, according to their qualifications, were placed in two broad categories, category A consisting of B.A./B.Sc/B.Com./B.Sc. (Agriculture) and B.T., and Category B consisting of 4 groups of whom Group I was "Matric with basic training (Including JBT)". The Government order mentioned the scales of pay as :

"Category A : Rs.110-8-190/10-250 with a higher start for M.A. & M.Sc. As at present. The existence precentage of posts fixed by Government for scales of Rs.110-8-190/10-250 and Rs.250-300 should remain unchanged at 35% and 15% respectively.

Category B : Lower Rs. 60-4-80/5-120.

Middle Rs. 120-5-175.

Upper Rs. 140-10-200.

With a view to providing incentives, it has been decided that posts failing in these groups should be in the following as G Group I : Lower Scale 85% Middle Scale 15%

15% of teachers in this group should straightway be promoted to the middle scale by a selection based on seniority and merits, while the rest should be given the lower scale."

What is important to be noticed here is that the scale of pay was linked to the qualification. A question was raised whether teachers who started as Basic Trained teachers and later acquired the B.Ed. or B.T. qualification, but who could not be adjusted against posts of Masters would be entitled to the grade of Rs. 110-250? Answering a query, the Secretary of the Department of Education replied, "Your presumption that teachers holding B.A., B.T./B.A.,B.Ed. qualifications would henceforth be placed in Category A is confirmed". The question also came to be considered judicially, first by the High Court of Punjab & Haryana and later by the Supreme Court in State of Punjab v. Kirpal Singh Bhatia (1976) 1 SCR 529: (AIR 1976 SC 2459). The Supreme Court, affirming the judgment of the High Court of Punjab & Haryana, held as follows :

"The High Court rightly referred to the letter of the Secretary of the Department dated 24th September, 1957 that teachers holding B.A.,B.T./B. A.,B. Ed. qualifications would henceforth be placed in Category A. The High Court rightly came to the conclusion that the scale of pay of Rs. 110-250/- would be effective either from the date when the teachers would pass the examination of Bachelor of Teaching or its equivalent or 1st May, 1957 whichever is later."

While the writ petitions were pending in the High Court, the Government of Haryana issued an order directing further revision of the scales of pay of teachers working in Government schools in 1968. It was expressly stated in the order that the scales of pay were being revised consequent on the acceptance of therecommendations of the "Kothari Commission". One of the questions which the Kothari Commission had conside