Gujarat High Court orders state to pay salary arrears to teachers, slams ‘paradoxical’ pay rules

The petitioners contended that, under the Government Resolution dated August 16, 1994, primary teachers were entitled to a higher pay scale upon completion of nine years of service. The petitioners completed 9 years of service during 2019–2020 and became eligible for the first higher pay scale, but were granted the benefit only after a Government Resolution dated October 22 was issued. However, the arrears for the intervening period were not paid.

The Additional Government Pleader, appearing for the state, argued that the petitioners were delayed and arrears should not be paid because “no promotional post of Education Inspector existed in the petitioners’ School Board setup had existed”, which was a prerequisite for entitlement as per the original system of the Gujarat Municipal School Board. Primary teachers in boards that had a promotional post of Education Inspector were entitled to a higher pay scale of Rs 5,000–8,000. Those on boards without such a post were paid on a lower scale of Rs 4,500–7,000.

This structural gap was fixed in the 2022 GR, which extended the higher pay scale to all primary teachers, regardless of whether an Education Inspector post existed. But the resolution had directed that the intervening period —from when teachers first became entitled to the higher scale to the date of the 2022 resolution —would be treated only notionally, effectively denying years of salary arrears.

The court relied on a 2024 judgment of the Gujarat HC in an identical matter. Taking the ingredients of the 2024 order as “governing the present case”, the court held that the state’s objections were “absolutely misconceived”. The court held that tying arrears to the existence of a promotional post would mean “perpetuating the same anomaly which was sought to be rectified (by the GR) the paradox being too obvious to be misused.”

12 weeks to clear arrears

The court found that “the State Government was conscious of the fact that there existed a serious anomaly in the matter” and concluded that “the very purpose of the (2022) Government Resolution was to ensure that even if there were no post of Education Inspector in the set up of the Municipal School Board concerned then also, the Primary Teachers would be entitled to higher grade (scale of payment).”

The court held that the state cannot contradict its own resolution and stated, “To state that the arrears would be granted to only such School Boards where the post of Education Inspector was in existence, would be going against the grain of the Government Resolution itself… having come out with a policy now to state that payment of arrears would be dependent on availability of the promotion post of Education Inspector would amount to perpetuating the same anomaly which was sought to be rectified. The paradox being too obvious to be misused.”

The court rejected the “national treatment” clause in the 2022 Government Resolution and directed the state and authorities to calculate and pay all dues within twelve weeks of receiving the judgment. The teachers will, however, not be entitled to receive interest on the delayed payments.