1430.22WP.odt

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IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY

BENCH AT AURANGABAD

61 WRIT PETITION NO.1430 OF 2022

Vandana W/o Gopalrao Dhavale

Age : 42 years, Occ : Peon,

Renukadevi Primary & Higher Secondary

Mahavidyalaya, Vasant Nagar,

Mahapur, Tq. & Dist. Latur.

..PETITIONER

-VERSUS-

1.

The State of Maharashtra

Through its Secretary

Social Welfare Department,

Mantralaya, Mumbai.

2.

The Director,

V.J.N.T., OBC and SBC Special

Assistant Department,

Maharashtra State, Pune.

3.

The Regional Deputy Commissioner,

Social Welfare Latur Division,

Latur.

4.

The Assistant Commissioner,

Social Welfare Department,

Latur.

5.

Renukadevi Primary & Higher Secondary

Mahavidyalaya, Vasant Nagar,

Mahapur, Tq. & Dist. Latur

Through its Headmaster

..RESPONDENTS

...

Mr.M.S. Taur, advocate for the petitioner.

Mr.P.S. Patil, Addl. GP for the respondent/State.

...

CORAM : S.V. GANGAPURWALA

AND

S.G. DIGE, JJ.

DATE : 31^st JANUARY, 2022

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ORAL JUDGMENT (PER S.V. GANGAPURWALA, J.)

1.

Heard.

2.

Rule. Rule made returnable and heard

forthwith with the consent of the parties. The

petition is taken up for final disposal at

admission stage.

3.

The petitioner is the employee of aided

private Ashram School and is claiming his

entitlement to higher pay scale under Assured

Career Progress Scheme (for short, “the ACPS”) on

completion of 12 years of qualifying service from

the date of her initial appointment.

4.

It is the contention of the petitioner

that the employees serving in private aided

Ashram Schools are discriminated, and have been

denied benefits whereas, the benefits are made

available to the Ashram Schools conducted by the

Social Welfare Department, and other private

aided schools conducted by other Departments.

5.

The issue raised in the petition is no

more res integra in view of judgment of the

Division Bench at Principal Seat in Writ Petition

no.2358/2013 and other companion matters decided

on Sept., 21^st, 2013. The Division Bench in

paragraph nos.17 to 19 of the order has observed

thus :

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“17. The Assured Career Progress Scheme is a

welfare scheme which is basically brought abut

to remove stagnation as very few promotion

avenues are available to Group “C” and “D”

employees. The ACPS enables the eligible

employees to be placed in higher pay scale.

The eligible non-teaching staff of the aided

Secondary Schools in Group “C” and “D”

category gets the benefits of ACPS. But the

similar category of employees in the aided

private Ashram Schools who perform identical

duties have been denied the benefit of ACPS

which infringes their fundamental rights under

Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution of

India. The action of denial of benefits to the

similarly placed employees discharging similar

duties is arbitrary and violative of Article

14 of the Constitution of India.

18.

Only on the basis of purported ground of

financial crunch, we fail to understand the

approach of the State Government of

discriminating between the non-teaching staff

of aided Ashram Schools and non-teaching staff

of aided private Schools. At one stage both

the Schools were functioning under the control

of only one department.

19.

In our view the denial of benefit of ACPS

amounts to discrimination, which is hit by the

rights guaranteed by Article 14 and 16 of the

Constitution of India”.

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6.

In view of the decision rendered by the

Division bench, as referred to above, the

petition deserves to be allowed, and the same is

accordingly allowed.

7.

The respondents are directed to examine

the case of the petitioner for deciding whether

she satisfy the criteria laid down for claiming

benefits under the ACPS to the private aided

Government School under the Government Resolution

dated 30^th April, 1998, as modified from time to

time, and if it is found that the petitioner is

entitled to claim benefits under the Scheme, and

she satisfy the eligib