IMPORTANT POINT
The terms and conditions of service of a teacher shall not be varied to his or her disadvantage, and the scale of pay allowed to candidates is person-specific rather than post-specific.

JUDGMENT :

RAI CHATTOPADHYAY, J.

1. The writ petitioner was initially appointed as an Assistant Teacher in Physical Education, in the school namely ‘Sankhari Bansberia High School’ at Barabhum, Purulia. His appointment letter is dated 24/04/2006 and his date of joining is 05/05/2006. He has been granted approval vide letter of the respondent No. 4 dated 10/08/2006. Petitioner’s prayer for grant of higher scale of pay in terms of his post graduate qualification with effect from his date of joining, that is, 05/05/2006, was allowed by the managing committee of the school. Accordingly the respondent No. 4 was moved on this by sending the file to its good office by the school authorities. Allegedly the said respondent did not take any steps, in terms of the recommendation of the school authorities, for grant of higher scale of pay to the petitioner.

2. As a result a writ petition was filed [being WP No. 6547 of 2006] in which the following order dated 21/12/2012 was passed:

“On the basis of the ratio as laid down by this Court, the decision of the District Inspector of Schools in rejecting the claim of the petitioner for higher scale of pay admissible to a master degree holder is not sustainable. The impugned memo is, therefore, quashed and set aside.

The D.I. of Schools is directed to grant the higher scale of pay to the petitioner for acquiring the master degree and the entire process shall be completed by the said authority within eight weeks from the date of the communications of this order.

The writ petition is thus disposed of.”

3. In compliance with the order in WP No. 6547 of 2006, dated 21/12/2012, the petitioner was provisionally granted the benefit of higher scale of pay, vide order dated 06/09/2013 and a corrigendum dated 10/10/2013. Pay fixation in terms of the new scale of pay was also allowed.

4. This was followed by the petitioner’s letter dated 02/12/2014, made to the Secretary of the managing committee of the said school/respondent No. 10, praying for grant of the benefit as above, permanently, instead of provisionally, as was granted to him earlier. Such prayer was allowed by the managing committee of the school and its recommendation to that effect was forwarded to the respondent No. 4, on 15.05.2015. At this juncture the petitioner had made an application for mutual transfer, on 23/09/2016 from his existing school to ‘Kataganj Gokulpur Adarsha Sikshayatan High School (HS)’ at Kalyani, Nadia. It is necessary to note that the petitioner had mentioned in his application for mutual transfer the post graduate scale of pay, which he has been receiving pursuant to the order of this Court dated 21/12/2012. After necessary formalities being concluded, the petitioner’s prayer for mutual transfer has been approved vide recommendation dated 26/07/2017. The petitioner had joined the new school on mutual transfer, on 24/08/2017. Appointment of the petitioner to the new school on mutual transfer was duly approved by the respondent No. 5, vide an order dated 01/11/2017. The petitioner’s prayer for regularisation of salary on mutual transfer was forwarded to the District Inspector of Schools (SE) Nadia/respondent No. 5 on 04/01/2018. However, this time, allegedly the petitioner was not granted the postgraduate scale of pay for discharging duty as an Assistant Teacher in ‘Kataganj Gokulpur Adarsha Sikshayatan High School (HS)’ at Kalyani, Nadia. Hence the petitioner had made a representation before the Secretary, School Education Department, Government of West Bengal/respondent No. 1, seeking redress of his grievance. However, the petitioner’s prayer as above was declined by the concerned respondent vide an order dated 19/07/2018. Consequently, the petitioner had again made a written representation seeking redress of his grievance to the Commissioner of School Education/respondent No. 2, but to no avail. Instead, pursuant to a letter of the Assistant Inspector of Schools (SE) Kalyani/respondent No. 7 dated 14/08/2018, the petitioner wa