IMPORTANT POINT
The central legal point established is that teachers appointed on PTA basis in Government Colleges should not be denied the benefit of Grant-in-Aid Rules, considering their service and the Department's failure to adhere to recruitment and promotion rules.

JUDGMENT :

Ajay Mohan Goel, J.

By way of this petition, the petitioners have prayed for the following reliefs:-

(a) “That the impugned action of the respondents in denying the petitioners the benefit of Grant-in-Aid, may kindly be declared arbitrary, illegal and unconstitutional.

(b) That this Hon’ble Court may kindly be pleased to issue a writ in the nature of mandamus and the respondents may kindly be directed to extend the benefit of PTA Grant-in-Aid Rules, 2006 to the petitioner without any discriminati0on from the date of their initial appointment alongwith interest @ 9% per annum and to continue releasing the Grant-in-Aid in favour of the petitioners in future also, in accordance with law.”

2. The case of the petitioners is that petitioner No.1 was appointed as Assistant Professor (Political Science) in Government College Sarkaghat w.e.f. 09.03.2015 on PTA basis and petitioner No.2 was appointed as Lecturer (Physical Education) in Government College Sarkaghat w.e.f. 07.08.2009. Though the services of petitioner No.2 were terminated on account of the joining of a regular hand in the month of March, 2010, however, in the month of April 2011, he was re-engaged and he continues to serve as such. According to the petitioners, in terms of notification dated 26.07.2014 (Annexure P-6) all incumbents appointed on PTA basis prior to issuance of the said notification have been allowed to continue in service, with the condition that, inconsonance with the UGC guidelines, candidates who acquired M.Phil Degree before 11.06.2009, are not even required to pass NET/SET. According to the petitioners, they are being paid by the PTA, out of the funds being generated by the PTA, and meager salary is being paid to them despite the fact that they are performing same and similar duties as are being performed by regularly appointed teacher/lecture. According to the petitioners, they possess requisite qualification for being appointed against the posts manned by them and, in these circumstances, the petition stands filed with the prayer that respondents be directed to extend the benefit of PTA Grant -in-Aid Rules to the petitioners from the initial date of their appointment with interest.

3. The stand of the State is that the Government of Himachal Pradesh has notified Grant-in-Aid Rules to Parent Teacher Association. Petitioners were never engaged in terms of the said policy and in terms of the information gathered by the respondents; both the petitioners were engaged purely on local PTA fund collected mostly from the parents of students for effective teaching only excluding the vacation. The petitioners were verbally engaged by the PTA Executive Committee. Petitioner No.2 is stated to be not even qualified to perform the duties of an Assistant Professor. It is further the case of the respondents that the Government of Himachal Pradesh has extended the PTA policy to 14 newly open Government Colleges only in order to make them functional vide notification dated 08.09.2014 and as the petitioners are not appointed in either of these 14 Colleges, therefore, they are not entitled qua the relief being claimed. It is further the stand of the Department that there are hundreds of other PTAs, who are working in the Colleges and who will also claim the same benefits. It is also the stand of the State that there is a substantial distinction in the mode and manner of appointment/engagement of the petitioners vis-à-vis regularly appointed Assistant Professors, who have to face open competition and are appointed through HP Public Service Commission. On these basis, the State has opposed the claim of the petitioners.

4. I have heard learned Senior Counsel for the petitioners as well as learned Advocate General and have also carefully gone through the pleadings alongwith documents appended therewith.

5. The petitioners though appointed on PTA basis have been appointed in Colleges, which are Government Colleges. As from the date of their appointment, they are imparting