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Educational Society, Tumsar v. State of Maharashtra

Civil Appeal · Neutral citation not assigned (Civil Appeal No. 670 of 2016)Decided 1 Feb 2016
Civil Appeal No. 670 of 2016
Justice A.K. Sikri · Justice Abhay Manohar Sapre

Background

A teacher at a 100%-government-aided school run by the Educational Society, Tumsar was terminated, and the School Tribunal set aside the termination as illegal, directing the school management (not the government) to reinstate her with back wages. The school later settled with the teacher and reinstated her, but then tried to make the State Government pay the back wages instead of paying out of its own funds, relying on a 1978 government resolution that puts such liability on the Education Department in certain cases. When the Education Officer refused and the High Court rejected the school's claim, the school appealed to the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that while, as a general rule, the Government bears the cost of back wages for employees of aided schools reinstated after an illegal termination, that general rule only applies when the Government/Education Department had some role in or responsibility for the illegal termination. Here, the School Tribunal had specifically found that the school's own management acted without jurisdiction and without following the mandatory enquiry procedure under the Maharashtra Employees of Private Schools Act, 1977 and Rules, 1981: the Education Department had no part in that illegal decision. Because the fault and the resulting liability lay squarely with the school's management, the Court declined to shift the financial burden onto the Government, and dismissed the appeal as devoid of merit, upholding the High Court's order.

Lesson Learnt

A government-aided institution cannot pass the cost of its own unlawful or procedurally defective actions (such as an improperly conducted disciplinary termination) onto the government funding it: financial liability follows fault, not just who provides the funding.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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