‘Delay in pay panel implementation in schools causing hardships’

The Delhi High Court sought a response from the Directorate of Education (DoE) on Tuesday on a plea accusing the city government of delaying implementation of the Seventh Central Pay Commission’s (CPC) recommendations in private unaided schools causing hardship to teachers, students and parents.

Justice Sunil Gaur issued notices to the DoE and the Lieutenant-Governor on the plea but refused to stay an April 2018 decision of the Department that barred several private schools from implementing the 7th CPC while allowing the others to go ahead.

‘Tuition fees’

The Action Committee Unaided Recognised Private Schools said the matter has far reaching consequences as private schools were entirely dependent on tuition fees.

Its counsel said the DoE’s decision will also contribute to the delay in implementation of the recommendations, apart from leading to exodus of teachers from the schools, which have been barred for the time being from hiking the pay of their staff.

Delhi government standing counsel Ramesh Singh said none of the schools were a party to the case and asked how can the association approach the court. He said private schools, of course, have to pay teachers as per the 7th CPC recommendations.

The petition has claimed that government and aided schools can draw sustenance from the exchequer for payments to be made towards increased salaries and allowances, but private institutions are entirely dependent on fee received from students to meet such liabilities.

“Needless to emphasise that any delay in implementation and retrospective implementation of the CPC’s recommendations leads to huge problems not only for the private unaided recognised school, who have to collect funds for such implementation, but also leads to huge resentment among parents, who are made to pay arrears, and among the staff and teachers, who are deprived of their entitlement for no reason,” the plea said.

It has claimed that the government had earlier delayed implementation of the 6th CPC and “the practice, trend and pattern of belatedly implementing CPC recommendations retrospectively, every time is not only illegal and arbitrary, but also discriminatory and results in grave hardship to the schools, the teachers and to the parents and students”.