Thousands of teachers, lecturers and other staff working in private aided educational institutions can cheer now.
The High Court of Karnataka on Friday declared as “unconstitutional” the Karnataka Private Aided Educational Institutions Employees (Regulation of Pay, Pension, and other benefits) Act, 2014.
Justice Aravind Kumar passed the order while allowing hundreds of petitions filed by teachers, lecturers and other staff working in various private aided educational institutions across the State, questioning the action of the government in “nullifying” effect of earlier verdicts of the courts by enacting the new Act.
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The government had enacted this Act to “nullify” the verdicts of 2006 and 2009 of the High Court that were upheld by the apex court in 2013.
The earlier verdicts of the courts, which were a result of legal battle started in 2001, had held that denial of pension and other benefits to the staff of aided institutions from the date of they joining the institution was “discriminatory” as it violated Article 14 when such benefits were given to those working in government-owned institutions from the date of they joining the service.
Citing that huge financial burden for implementing earlier verdict, the government in 2014 brought in this new Act with retrospective effect from June 1, 1995 excluding the non-grant period for the purpose of seniority and fixing of pay scale, pension etc. Following new Act, the government started withdrawing the benefits that were extended to them based on earlier verdicts.
They are now entitled for the pay-scale and other benefits with effect from the day they joined the private educational institutions and not from the day the grant-in-aid was received by the institutions.
The court held that “the legislature nor the executive has the power to simply declare the decision of the apex court as invalid or not binding” when the earlier verdicts had not found or declared any law to be invalid but held that denial of benefits to staff of aided educational institutions was violative of Article 14.
“The judgments rendered by this court and upheld by the apex court has not extended these benefits to the petitioners on the basis of any lacuna either in the Karnataka Education Act or the rules thereby enabling the legislature to fill up the said defect or loophole or lacuna in the enactment through the impugned enactment,” the court held.
It also held that financial burden can’t be a reason to “nullify” earlier verdicts, which had deliberated on this issue, saying that it was the duty of the government to mobilise resource for education.
Karnataka Private Aided Educational Institutions Employees Act, 2014 declared ‘unconstitutional’