Hon’ble Dr. D.Y. Chandrachud, CJ.—The present reference to the Full Bench has been occasioned by a referring order dated 29 April 2014, in CMWP No. 23627 of 2014 (Dr. Jai Prakash Narayan Singh v. State of U.P. and others.. The reference primarily involves a construction of the provisions of the Uttar Pradesh State Universities Act, 1973 and the Uttar Pradesh Higher Education Services Commission Act, 1980 together with the Statutes which govern the State Universities. The Division Bench has referred the following questions for consideration by the Full Bench:

1. Whether there is a conflict between the ratio of the decisions in the cases of Daljeet Singh v. State of U.P., 2007(7) ADJ 117 (DB) and Om Saran Tripathi v. State of U.P., 2009(8) ADJ 322 (DB) and if so, which of the views lays down the law correctly; and

2. Whether an officiating Principal appointed under Statute 10.20 of Purvanchal University, is entitled to claim payment of salary in the regular grade of the Principal or not.

Essentially, the issue is whether a teacher who is appointed to officiate as principal on the permanent post of a principal falling vacant in a college affiliated to a State University, is entitled to the pay scale and grade of a regular principal.

2. In the following decisions, Division Benches of this Court directed the payment of salary drawn by a principal to an officiating principal of a degree college:

(1) Durga Prasad Dwivedi v. Director of Higher Education, CMWP No. 8737 of 1988, decided on 11 July, 1994. This judgment was referred to and followed in :

(i) Raghu Nath Mishra v. State of U.P., CMWP No. 39699 of 1993, decided on 13 November, 1997;

(ii) Anand Prakash Tyagi v. State of U.P., CMWP No. 46257 of 1999, decided on 2 November, 1999; and

(iii) Madan Gopal Mittal v. State of U.P., CMPW No. 42012 of 2004, decided on 7 October, 2004;

(2) Paras Nath Pandey v. District Inspector of Schools, 1995 AWC 603;

(3) Dr. Govind Nath Niranjan v. District Inspector of Schools, Jalaun at Orai, 1996 AWC 1757; and

(4) Om Saran Tripathi v. State of U.P., 2009(5) ESC 3023.

3. However, in Daljeet Singh (supra), a Division Bench of this Court held that under the Statutes of the University, the senior most teacher is not appointed as officiating principal but is only permitted to discharge the duties of a principal. In coming to this conclusion, the Division Bench placed reliance on the following decisions of Division Benches of the Court:

(1) Sheo Shanker Tripathi v. Director of Education (Sanskrit), U.P. Allahabad, 2007(4) AWC 3636; and

(2) Vijay Rani v. Regional Inspectress of Girls Schools, Region I, Meerut, 2007(2) ESC 987.

4. For the completeness of the record, we note that Division Benches of this Court in the following decisions directed the payment of salary drawn by a principal to an officiating principal of a secondary school:

(1) Dhaneshwar Singh Chauhan v. District Inspector of Schools, Budaun, 1980 UPLBEC 286;

(2) Narbdeshwar Misra v. District Inspector of Schools, Deoria, 1982 UPLBEC 171; and

(3) Soloman Morar Jha v. District Inspector of Schools, Deoria, 1985 UPLBEC 113.

A conflict of decisions has arisen. That, the Full Bench is called upon to resolve.

5. For convenience of analysis, we propose to divide this judgment into following Sections:

(I) Section A - Relevant provisions of the Uttar Pradesh State Universities Act, 1973;

(II) Section B - Relevant provisions of the Uttar Pradesh State Universities First Statutes (Age of Superannuation, Scales of Pay and Qualifications of Teachers), 1975;

(III) Section C - Relevant provisions of the Uttar Pradesh Higher Education Services Commission Act, 1980;

(IV) Section D - Analysis of the issues involved;

(V) Section E - Evaluation of the conflicting decisions of this Court; and

(VI) Section F - Conclusion.

(I) Section A - Relevant provisions of the Uttar Pradesh State Universities Act, 1973, Universities Act

1. (i) Section 2 (2) defines the expression ‘affiliated college’ to mean an instit