A school manager's improper suspension of a teacher can result in financial liability under the Kerala Education Rules, warranting recovery of lost salaries from the manager.

JUDGMENT

Demand prior to the attachment of land by the Collector through Deputy Tahsildar dated 09.03.2021 for recovering an amount of Rs.2,87,773/- as arrears of salary from the petitioner, who had been a Manager of Sree Vitoba High School, Kaymkulam, Alapuzha District has been challenged.

2. Petitioner is a member of Gowda Saraswatha Brahmin Community in the state of Kerala having a Devaswom Board under the name Sree Vittala Devaswom. It in possession and ownership of 40 acres of land and is a corporate educational agency and through proper procedure, had been working as the manager of the aforementioned school since 19.05.2014. His appointment was duly approved by the Departmental Authorities. The new Management Committee had taken charge on 13.09.2019 and the tenure of the petitioner terminated on

13.09.2019.

3. When the petitioner was holding the office of Manager of the School placed a Headmistress of the School Smt.R.Maya under suspension on the basis of the information from majority of the teachers of the school that the said Headmistress was deliberately creating problems in the functioning of the school by repeatedly convening meetings in the midst of the class hours, at short notice, which adversely affected the entire work and discipline of the school. This was based upon an anonymous letter addressed to the Headmistress and accordingly served a show cause notice dated 16.02.2019 seeking an explanation from the Headmistress Ext.P1, which was duly replied on 17.02.2019 Ext.P2 and on 26.02.2019 actually suspended the Headmistress vide suspension order Ext.P3, which was placed before the Management Committee of the Devaswom Board. A unanimous decision to entrust the petitioner to take proper and strict measures in the matter was taken vide Resolution No.708 Ext.P4. The Headmistress Smt.Maya approached the Office of the Deputy Director of Education, challenging the order of suspension pending enquiry and as per the provisions of Rule 67(8) of Chapter XIV A of the Kerala Education Rules , Deputy Director of Education, Alappuzha, conducted an enquiry on 08.03.2019 whereby not only the petitioner being the manager of the school but the Staffs’ Secretary, representative of the District Educational Officers and other teachers were heard in person. It was found that the that the complaint received at the school and on the basis of the enquiry that Smt.Maya had performed the duties vested in her as Headmistress and therefore the action for suspending her was not sustainable. In the result, Manager was directed to reinstate her forthwith with effect from 26.02.2019 vide order dated 12.03.2019 Ext.P5. 4. Petitioner preferred a revision under Rule 92 of Chapter XIV A of the Ext.P6, three days after passing of the order Ext.P5. In the meantime, both the petitioner and Smt.Maya had also approached this Court by filing writ petitions, W.P.(C).No.9666/2019 for disposal of the revision petition and W.P(C).8054/2019 for reinstatement, respectively. This Court vide judgment dated 01.04.2019 issued directions to the Government to consider and pass orders on revision Ext.P6 after affording an opportunity of hearing to the Manager and Headmistress within a period of three months from the date of receipt of the copy the judgment and in the meantime, Government was also directed to pass an order on the stay petition within a period of three weeks and deemed reinstatement of the Headmistress was ordered to subject to the decision to be taken in the revision petition and stay petition.

5. Learned counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioner submitted that the revision petition entailed into dismissal vide impugned order dated 20.06.2019 Ext.P8 resulting into recovery proceedings. The said proceedings are against the provisions of the Rules and cannot be made applicable to the petitioner in as much as that all the decisions taken by the management, was as per Rule 3(4) of the Kerala Education Rule Chapter III which would have a binding effect