A. LAKSHMANA RAO, J.

( 1 ) THE question that arises for consideration in this appeal is whether the teachers who were employed in the schools run by Aided Managements as well as Local Bodies and retired from service prior to 1st April 1973 are entitled to the same pensionary benefits as are extended to those who retired from service on or after 1st April, 1973.

( 2 ) THIS appeal is preferred by the petitioners in Writ Petition no. 16686 of 1984 having been aggrieved by she dismissal of the writ petition. The first appellant herein is the Andhra Pradesh Non-Government retired Teachers Association and the other two appellants are the members of that association who had retired from service as Headmasters prior to 1st April 1973.

( 3 ) THE State Government made Andhra Pradesh Liberalised Pension rules, 1961 and they carne into force from 1st April 1961. They were made applicable to all the Government servants.

( 4 ) WITH a view to improve the conditions of service of teachers employed in the schools run by Aided Managements as well as Local Bodies, the State Government framed the Andhra Pradesh Teachers Contributory provident Fund-cum-Pension and Gratuity Rules, 1961 in G. O. Ms. No. 3372 dated October 31, 1961 and those rules were made applicable to all the teachers who worked in Non-Government schools and retired from service on or after 1st April 1961. Under these rules, a teacher shall be eligible for payment of pension if he had rendered a total qualifying- service of ten years or more, and a teacher who had rendered !css then ten years of service but not less then five years shall be eligible to gratuity according to the scale of pension or gratuity as the case may be, as provided in the rules. In order to remove the impediments for speedy disposal of pension cases, the State Government prescribed modified procedure in G. O. Ms. No. 1206 dated April 28, 1965. This G. O. also refers to what is paid to the teachers who have retired from the Non-Government Schools on or after 1st April, 1961 as pension.

( 5 ) WHILE so, the teachers who had worked in Non-Government Aided schools and retired from service prior to 1st April, 1961 made representations to the State Government requesting that the benefit of pension be extended to them on par with the teachers who had retired from service after 1st April, 1961. On consideration of those representations, the State government decided to grant financial assistance to those teachers who had retired prior to 1st April 1961 from Non-Government Aided Schools, including those run by Local Bodies, and accordingly issued G. O. Ms. No. 1649 dated July 5, 1966. It was specified therein that the Elementary Grade teachers shall be eligible to Rs 15/- and the Secondary Grade Teachers shall be eligible to Rs 20/- per mensem by way of financial assistance. So far as the B. Ed. , Assistants, Grade-I Pandits, Secretarial Assistants, Commercial teachers and the Headmasters are concerned, it was directed that pension shall be sanctioned to them in accordance with the Andhra Pradesh teachers Contributory Provident Fund-cum-Pension and Gratuity rules, 1961 (G. O. Ms. No. 3372 dated October 31, 1961 ). Thus, what was payable to those categories of employees under G. O. Ms. No. 1649 dt. July 5, 1966 was described as pension. With a view to expedite sanctioning of the amount granted in G. O. Ms. No. 1649 dated July 5, 1966, the State Government issued G. O. Ms No. 2265 dated September 17,1966 modifying the orders issued, in sub-para (ii) of para 3 of G. O. Ms. No. 1649 dt. July 5,1966. As per the modification, what is paid even to B. Ed. Asssistants, Grade-I pandits, Secretarial Assistants and Commercial Teachers is described as financial assistance and not pension. Though in the preamble to G. O. Ms. No. 2265 dated September 17, 1966 the word "pension" has been used, from the body of the G. O. it is evident that what is paid to the B. Ed. , assistants, Grade-I Pandits, Secretarial Assistants, Commercial Tea

Click Here to Read the rest of this document