Pay benefits case: HC summons edu dept commissioner

CHENNAI: A division bench of Madras High Court on Wednesday directed the Tamil Nadu School Education Department Commissioner to appear and appraise the court for not implementing the 1993 Government Order and a subsequent three-judge bench order to provide uniform salaries to Bachelor of Teaching (BT) teachers.

Bench of Justice Paresh Upadhyay and Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy passed the direction on hearing a petition filed by one BT Assistant named Hariharan.

The petitioner prayed for a direction to the school education department to implement the 1993 GO and 2016 order of Madras High Court’s three-judge-bench to pay him the uniform salary which was being paid to other BT teachers.

When the matter was taken for hearing on Wednesday, the government advocate informed the court that instructions need to be received from the authorities.

Nevertheless, the judges observed that the officials failed to give proper instructions in the case and opined that the respondent authorities did not extend proper cooperation to the court. The bench also ordered the commissioner for the school education department to appear on Thursday.

The government side also informed the HC that the three-judge bench said in its order that no petitioner should be entertained after 2017. The court rejected the submission observing that the litigations in this issue date back to 2013 and are pending with the court.