The education authorities do not have the power to approve or sanction the repatriation of a teacher by the management of a secondary school, unless specifically provided for in the Secondary Schools Code.

JUDGMENT - Ginwala A.A. J.:-The petitioner was employed by respondent No. 4 as an Assistant Teacher with effect from 1-7 1952. He continued to serve with that institution til! 23-6-1963. By its letter dated 15-6-1963 respondent No. 3 informed the petitioner that its managing committee had appointed him as Assistant Head Master of S. E. S. High School at Sakoli with effect from 24-6-1963 on monthly salary of Rs. 150/-plus C. C. L. A. of Rs. 50/-. Accordingly the petitioner stirted working in the school maintained by respondent No. 3. It is not disputed that respondents Nos. 3 and 4 are inde-pendent educational institutions. The case of the petitioner in brief is that he came to serve respondent No. 3 at its invitation keeping his lien on his service with respondent No. 4 for two years after which period it was come to an end with the result that he would be in permanent employment of respondent No. 3. On the other hand the case of respondent No. 3 is that respondent No. 4 had sent the petitioner on deputition to work as an Assistant Teacher in its school and he was not appointed as Assistant Head Master, but was merely put in-charge of that post since having regard to the strength of the school in which he worked there could not have been a post of Assistant Head Master. It is contended by respondent No. 3 that due to some misconception on the part of its managing committee then the peti-tioner was designated as Assistant Head Master, which could not have been done under the Secondary Schools Code. For the reasons which we will state below, we are not called upon to resolve this controversy between the petitioner and respondent No. 3.

2. To continue the narration of facts, on 17-4-1978 respondent No. 3 wrote to the Education Officer, Zilla Parishad, Bhandara (respondent No. 5) to approve the repatriation of teachers including the petitioner, who had come on deputation from respondent No. 4 to if. Under his letter dated 17-5-1978 respondent No. 5 informed respondent No. 3 that its action of repatriating the petitioner and one Joshi had been approved and sanctioned as their period of deputation had expired. The petitioner appealed to the Deputy Director of Education (respondent No. 2) against this approval on the part of the Education Officer. The Deputy Director by his order dated 16-6-1978 rejected the appeal of the petitioner and upheld the order of the Education Officer. In doing so, he held that respondent No. 4 had sent the petitioner and Joshi on deputation to respondent No. 3 and hence respon-dent No. 3 was justified in sending them back to their original posts. He held that the order of respondent No. 3 asking the petitioner and Joshi to hand over their charge with effect from 17-6-1978 and go hack to their original posts and schools was quite regular and the concerned teachers should follow it immediately. The petitioner then moved the Director of Education (res-pondent No. 1) in further appeal, but by his communication dated 25-9-1978 the latter informed the petitioner that there is no provision under the Schools Code to send a teacher on deputation working in non-Government secondary school and as such the question of hearing the appeal did not arise. He further held that the decision given by the Deputy Director was according to the rules and, therefore, no interference was called for by him. Being aggrieved by the orders passed by respondents Nos. 1, 2 and 5 the petitioner has invoked extraordinary jurisdiction of this Court under Article 226 of the Constitution with a prayer that they should be quashed.

3. In the petition the petitioner has challenged the impugned orders on merits and has also alleged that the so-called repatriation by respondent No. 3 to respondent No. 4 has been manoeuvred by the President of respondent No. 3 institution as the petitioner being a senior-most teacher in the school stands a good chance of being promot das Head Master, which post was imminently falling vacant and the said President wa

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