Judicial Analysis Court Copy Headnote Facts Arguments Court observation

2019 Supreme(SC) 551

SUPREME COURT OF INDIA
L. Nageswara Rao, M.R. Shah, JJ.
Dr. R.S. Sohane – Appellant
Versus
The State of Madhya Pradesh And Ors. – Respondents
Civil Appeal Nos. 4675-4676 of 2019 (Arising out of SLP (C) Nos. 31968-31969 of 2017), Civil Appeal Nos.4687-4688 of 2019(Arising out of SLP (C) Nos.31973-31974 of 2017), Civil Appeal Nos. 4685-4686 of 2019(Arising out of SLP (C) Nos.31996-31997 of 2017), Civil Appeal No. 4684 of 2019 (Arising out of SLP (C) No.31972 of 2017), Civil Appeal No. 4683 of 2019 (Arising out of SLP (C) No.31965 of 2017), Civil Appeal No. 4682 of 2019 (Arising out of SLP (C) No.31980 of 2017), Civil Appeal No. 4681 of 2019 (Arising out of SLP (C) No.31971 of 2017), Civil Appeal No. 4680 of 2019 (Arising out of SLP (C) No.31962 of 2017), Civil Appeal No. 4678 of 2019 (Arising out of SLP (C) No.31999 of 2017), Civil Appeal No. 4679 of 2019 (Arising out of SLP (C) No.32003 of 2017), Civil Appeal Nos.4689-4690 of 2019 (Arising out of SLP (C) Nos.4822-4823 of 2018), Civil Appeal No. 4677 of 2019 (Arising out of SLP (C) No.32005 of 2017), Civil Appeal No. 4766 of 2019 (Arising out of SLP (C) No.28545 of 2017), Civil Appeal No. 4693 of 2019 (Arising out of SLP (C) No.15810 of 2018), Civil Appeal No. 4691 of 2019 (Arising out of SLP (C) No.18106 of 2018), Civil Appeal No. 4692 of 2019 (Arising out of SLP (C) No18214 of 2018), Civil Appeal No.4768 of 2019 (Arising out of SLP (C) No.12068 of 2019)(Arising out of Diary No.41221 of 2018)
Decided On : 07-05-2019

Advocates Appeared:
For the Petitioner:Mr. L.C. Patne, Adv. Ms. Smriti Kumari, Adv. Mrs. Rekha Pandey, AOR Dr. Vinod Kumar Tewari, AOR Mr. Pankaj Kumar Singh, Adv. Mr. Manindra Dubey, Adv. Mr. Vivek Tiwari, Adv. Ms. Priyanka Tiwari, Adv. Mr. B.N.P. Pathak, Adv. Mr. Suryanarayana Singh, Sr. Adv. Ms. Kaveri Vats, Adv. Mr. D.K. Sinha, Adv. Ms. Pooja Shrivastava, Adv. Mr. Anup Jain, AOR Ms. Pragati Neekhra, AOR Mr. Sumeer Sodhi, Advocate
For the Respondent:Ms. Suman Kukrety, Adv. Mr. V. Sudeer, Adv. Mr. M.B. Ramasubba Raju, Adv. Ms. Megha Khanna, Adv. Mr. Balaji Srinivasan, AOR Mr. Sunil Fernandes, AAG Mr. Rahul Kaushik, AOR Ms. Nupur Kumar, Adv. Mr. Zeeshan Diwan, Adv. Mr. Gopal Sankaranarayanan, Sr. Adv. Mr. Sumeer Sodhi, AOR Mr. Arjun Nanda, Adv. Ms. Shreya Nair, Adv. Ms. Pinki Anand, ASG Ms. Niranjana Singh, Adv. Ms. Pooja Dhar, Adv. Mrs. Anil Katiyar, AOR Mr. Manoj Ranjan Sinha, Adv. Ms. Rekha Ranjan, Adv. Mr. R.P. Goyal, Adv. Mr. Akshat Shrivastava, AOR Mr. Sarbajit Dutta, Adv. Mr. Ravinder Agarwal, AOR Mr. Shailendra Sharma, Adv. Mr. Arjun Garg, AOR Mr. Sunny Choudhary, AOR Mrs. Swarupama Chaturvedi, Advocate
For the Impleader :Mr. Aman Pandey, Advocate

IMPORTANT POINTS
(1) Power to amend Statute is conferred on Coordination Committee and not on Executive Council.
(2) Teachers working in private aided educational institutions in State of Madhya Pradesh are entitled to benefit of enhanced age of superannuation of 65 years.

Headnote:Service Law – Age of retirement – University Service – Madhya Pradesh Vishwavidyalaya Adhiniyam, 1973 – Section 36 – Entitlement of Teachers working in private aided educational institutions in State of Madhya Pradesh to benefit of enhanced age of superannuation of 65 years – Amendment to Statute 28 of College Code on 07.01.2004 was not based on any proposal from Executive Council of any University – It was made by Coordination Committee on its own motion – Power to amend Statute is conferred on Coordination Committee and not on Executive Council – Matter pertaining to age of superannuation of Teachers working in aided private Colleges was referred by Coordination Committee to Standing Committee – On the basis of recommendations of Standing Committee, Coordination Committee passed Resolution on 07.01.2004 which was given effect to by amendment to Clause 26 of College Code – Standing Committee and Coordination Committee of University is represented by Senior Officers of State Government and it is not for State Government to contend that they will not extend benefit of enhancement of age of superannuation till 65 years to Teachers working in private aided institutes in spite of provisions in College Code – Impugned judgments set aside and Government of Madhya Pradesh directed to pay salaries to Teachers in aided private Colleges who are working and also those who have worked till they attained age of superannuation of 65 years. (Paras 16, 17, 18 and 19)
       Facts of Case:
       Issue that arises in present Appeals is regarding entitlement of Teachers working in private aided educational institutions in State of Madhya Pradesh to the benefit of enhanced age of superannuation of 65 years. Appellant was appointed as Lecturer in Commerce (later designated as Assistant Professor) on 01.09.1979 pursuant to recommendations of Selection Committee constituted under provisions of Statute No.28 (College Code 28) of the then Indore University (now Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalay, Indore) to PMB, Gujarati College, Indore which is an affiliated College. Said College was receiving 100% grant-in-aid from State Government.
       Findings of Court:
       High Court has gone wrong in observing that any proposal for amendment to a Statute made by Coordination Committee has to be sent to Executive Council of the University. Power to amend Statute is conferred on the Coordination Committee and not on Executive Council as has been understood by High Court. A further error committed by High Court was to hold that there is no recommendation of the Standing Committee on the basis of which a Resolution was passed on 07.01.2004. High Court lost sight of minutes of meeting of Standing Committee dated 01.04.2003 by which recommendation was made to maintain age of superannuation of Teachers working in aided private Colleges at par with those working in Government Colleges.
       Result : Appeals allowed.

JUDGMENT :

L. NAGESWARA RAO, J.

Leave granted.

1. The issue that arises in the above Appeals is regarding the entitlement of Teachers working in private aided educational institutions in the State of Madhya Pradesh to the benefit of enhanced age of superannuation of 65 years. For the sake of convenience, we refer to the facts in SLP (C) Nos. 31968-31969 of 2017. The Appellant was appointed as Lecturer in Commerce (later designated as Assistant Professor) on 01.09.1979 pursuant to the recommendations of the Selection Committee constituted under the provisions of Statute No.28 (College Code 28) of the then Indore University (now Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalay, Indore) to PMB, Gujarati College, Indore which is an affiliated College. The said College was receiving 100% grant-in-aid from the State Government.

2. On 02.09.1998, the Madhya Pradesh Shaskiya Sevak (Adhivarshiki Ayu) Second Amendment Act, 1998 amended the provisions of Madhya Pradesh Shaskiya Sevak (Adhivarshiki Ayu) Adhiniyam, 1967 enhancing the age of superannuation of the Government Teachers from 60 to 62 years. Teachers working in the private aided Colleges were also given the benefit of enhancement of the age of superannuation from 60 to 62 years. On 01.04.2003, the Standing Committee recommended to the University Coordination Committee that it would be appropriate to keep the age of superannuation of Principals, Teachers and employees of private Colleges at par with their counterparts in Government Colleges. The said recommendations of the Standing Committee were approved by the Coordination Committee in its 72nd meeting held on 07.01.2004.

3. A scheme for revision of pay of Teachers and equivalent cadres in Universities and Colleges was introduced on 31.12.2008 by the Ministry of Human Resources Development, Department of Higher Education, Government of India (2008 Scheme) following the revision of pay scales of the Central Government employees. The 2008 Scheme included enhancement of age of the superannuation of Teachers engaged in class room teaching from 62 to 65 years on the recommendations of the 6th Central Pay Commission. The Government of Madhya Pradesh accepted the recommendations contained in the 2008 Scheme on 16.04.2010. It was resolved that the benefit of the University Grants Commission (‘UGC’) pay scales including the recommendations for enhancement of the age of superannuation to 65 years shall be extended to Principals, Teachers, Librarians and Sports officers serving in Government Colleges and Universities.

4. The University Grants Commission Regulations on Minimum Qualifications for appointment of Teachers and other Academic staff in Universities and Colleges and measures for the maintenance of Standards in Higher Education, 2010 (‘Regulations’) were framed by the UGC in exercise of its powers conferred by Section 26 (1) (d) (e) of the University Grants Commission Act, 1956 (‘UGC Act’). The Appendix to the said Regulations contains the conditions of service of Teachers including the age of superannuation which was fixed at 65 years. The Government of Madhya Pradesh amended the provisions of Madhya Pradesh Shaskiya Sevak (Adhivarshiki Ayu) Adhiniyam, 1967 on 02.05.2011 providing the benefit of enhanced age of superannuation to the Teachers working in Government Colleges from 62 to 65 years.

5. Withdrawal of the grant-in-aid for the purpose of payment of salaries to the Teachers working in 100 % Government aided Private Institutes was the subject matter of a dispute which was resolved by this Court in Civil Appeal No.71 of 2004. By an order dated 07.01.2014, this Court directed that the 6th Pay Commission scales should be extended to the Teachers, Lecturers and non-teaching staff working in the private aided educational institutes. This Court clarified that the provisions of the Madhya Pradesh Ashaskiya Shikshan Sanstha (Adhyapakon Tatha Anya Karamchariyon Ke Vetano ka Sandaya) Sanshodan Adhiniyam, 2000 by which the grant-in-aid to the Teachers serving in 1

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2019 Supreme(SC) 551

IMPORTANT POINTS(1) Power to amend Statute is conferred on Coordination Committee and not on Executive Council.(2) Teachers working in private aided educational institutions in State of Madhya Pradesh are entitled to benefit of enhanced age of superannuation of 65 years.

IMPORTANT POINTS
(1) Power to amend Statute is conferred on Coordination Committee and not on Executive Council.
(2) Teachers working in private aided educational institutions in State of Madhya Pradesh are entitled to benefit of enhanced age of superannuation of 65 years.