Employees of unaided minority schools are entitled to the benefits of the 6th and 7th CPC reports, and the schools have a statutory obligation to grant these benefits.

JUDGMENT

Jyoti Singh, J. (Oral)

C.M. APPL. 54950/2022 (exemption)

1. Allowed, subject to all just exceptions.

2. Application stands disposed of.

W.P.(C) 17288/2022

3. Petitioner has filed the present writ petition seeking direction to Respondent Nos.2 and 3/Guru Harkrishan Public School (hereinafter referred to as "School") to release all the retirement benefits such as balance amount of gratuity, etc. as well as arrears of salary as per 7th Central Pay Commission (CPC) including TA and DA for the period 2012-2014, along with interest.

4. Petitioner was inducted as Primary Teacher on 07.07.1979 and retired on superannuation on 31.01.2017 as PGT (English). It is the case of the Petitioner that upon retirement the Petitioner is entitled to all terminal benefits including gratuity amounting to Rs.14,16,360/-, against which only Rs.10,00,000/- have been released to her. Petitioner is also entitled to TA/DA for the period 2012-2014 which comes to approximately Rs.1,00,000/-. It is also the grievance of the Petitioner that the salary and emoluments of the Petitioner ought to have been revised as per the 7th CPC recommendations which has not been done despite the fact that this is the statutory obligation of the School.

5. Learned counsel for the Petitioner submits that the reliefs sought by the Petitioner are covered by several judgments of this Court and there is no reason why the writ petition should not be allowed. Heavy reliance is placed on the judgment of this Court in Shikha Sharma v. Guru Harkrishan Public School & Ors., 2021 SCC OnLine Del 5011.

6. Learned counsel for Respondent No.1/DOE supports the stand of the Petitioner, while learned counsel for the School is unable to dispute that the case of the Petitioner is squarely covered by the judgment in Shikha Sharma (supra).

7. Having heard the learned counsels for the parties, this Court finds merit in the contentions of the Petitioner that she is entitled to pay revision under the 7th CPC and consequent refixation of the salary and release of arrears. Relevant paras of the judgment in Shikha Sharma (supra) are as follows:

"26. So, it is clear that the pay and allowances of the employees of unaided minority Schools cannot be less than those of the employees of the Government run Schools. There is no dispute that the benefits of 6th and 7th CPC have been given to the employees of the Government run Schools. If that be so, the employees of the unaided minority Schools are also entitled to get the benefits of the recommendations as made by the 6th and 7th CPC reports. So, this plea of Mr. Abinash Kumar Mishra is liable to be rejected. The plea of Mr. Mishra, that till such time the DoE grants approval to the Schools to collect the arrears of fees, the Schools must not be directed to pay the benefits of 7th CPC is concerned, the same is unmerited. The employees are entitled to equal pay and other benefits, by operation of Section 10 of the DSE Act, in other words, by operation of law, the said benefits are payable. The same does not pre-suppose the approval being granted by the Director to the Schools to claim higher fee or arrears thereof.

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28. Following the aforesaid judgment, even this Court in the case pertaining to grant of arrears of salary also granted similar reliefs to the petitioners in Shashi Kiran v. Siddharth International Public School, W.P.(C) No. 2734/2021; Rambir Singh Malik v. Greenfields Public School, W.P.(C) 9486/2020; and Inderpreet Kaur v. Directorate of Education, W.P.(C) 4127/2020. This Court in a recent judgment in the case of Amrita Pritam v. S.S. Mota Singh Junior Model School, W.P.(C) 1335/2019 dated September 22, 2021 has granted the benefits of the 7th CPC along with arrears to the petitioners therein. I may state here that an appeal has been preferred against the said judgment being S.S. Mota Singh Junior Model School v. Directorate of Education, Government of NCT of Delhi, LPA 399/2021, however, the Division Bench has not stayed