The court affirmed that teachers are entitled to a higher pay scale upon acquiring higher qualifications, regardless of permission requirements in outdated circulars.

Heard on : August 06, 2025 Judgment on : August 06, 2025 Ajay Kumar Gupta, J. :

1. Affidavit-of-service, filed in Court today on behalf of the petitioner, is taken on record.

2. The writ petitioner has approached this Court by challenging the order dated April 06, 2009 issued by the O.S.D. & E.O. Joint Secretary, thereby rejected the prayer of the petitioner for higher scale of pay on account of acquiring the M.A. Degree in Bengali.

3. The petitioner was an Assistant Teacher of Bandel Vidyamandir and his prayer was rejected on the ground that he had acquired Higher Qualification without obtaining permission from the D.I. of School.

4. Learned counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioner submits that prior to appearance in the examination, he had prayed for permission from the Managing Committee of the school and by the resolutions of the Managing Committee meeting his prayer was allowed for appearing in the M.A. Examination in Bengali under Burdwan University and his leave was granted. Copy of resolution is annexed as P-5 and P-6 of the writ petition. It is clear from the said annexure that he had obtained permission. Despite of the said facts, his prayer of higher scale of pay was rejected as aforesaid.

5. The learned counsel for the petitioner has placed reliance of the Judgement in the case of Shantanu Saha Vs. The State of West Bengal & Ors.1 particularly paragraph no. 3 thereof to bolster his contention that permission from D.I. of School was not required at that point of time, when he acquired higher education. The Co-

ordinate Bench held as under:-

“Learned Advocate for the State further argued that the petitioner cannot be given any higher scale of pay since he did not obtain permission from the District Inspector of School before appearing in the M.Sc. Examination. In this respect he has drawn my attention to the circular dated 24th June, 1997 issued by the Deputy Secretary of the Government of West Bengal, Education Department, Secondary Branch. It

1 2009 (1) CLJ Calcutta 639

appears that under the said circular it has been stated therein that in order to get higher scale of pay on account of enhancement of higher qualification, a teacher is to obtain prior permission from the District Inspector of School. However, we must not forget that the petitioner obtained the higher qualification in M.Sc. (Math) in the year 1992 and at the time the circular dated 24th June, 1997 was not in existence. As such from the plain reading of the said circular it must be said that it has got no applicability so far as the case of the petitioner is concerned. That apart, if we look into the documents which have been annexed along with the writ petition, then it will appear that the petitioner obtained prior permission from the school authority and the Managing Committee of the school granted such permission in favour of the petitioner. It further appears that the said Managing Committee referred the matter to the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education for sanctioning the leave which granted in favour of the petitioner for appearing in the examination in question. It appears from Annexure P-3 that the Secretary of the Board of Secondary Education informed the school authority that the Managing Committee of the school was competent enough to sanction such leave. It means that total liberty was given to the Managing Committee for sanctioning the study leave in favour of the petitioner and the school Managing Committee in fact allowed such prayer of the petitioner.”

6. Learned counsel has also placed reliance of a Larger Bench judgment passed in the case of Utpal Kanti Karan Vs. State of West Bengal & Ors.2 to support his contention that individual who obtained higher education entitles to higher scale of pay.

7. Per contra, t