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Trigun Chand Thakur v. State of Bihar and Ors.

Civil Appeal · 2019 INSC 733Decided 9 Jul 2019
Civil Appeal No. 10003 of 2010
Justice R. Banumathi · Justice A.S. Bopanna

Background

A Sanskrit teacher at a privately managed school was suspended and then terminated from service in 1994 following disciplinary allegations. After a long administrative back-and-forth, including a consent order sending him to the Chairman of the Bihar Sanskrit Shiksha Board, a reinstatement direction that was then appealed and remanded by the Special Director, he challenged the remand order by filing a writ petition in the Patna High Court, which was dismissed on the ground that a private school's Managing Committee is not "State" under Article 12 of the Constitution and so cannot be sued through a writ petition. A Division Bench of the High Court affirmed this dismissal, and the teacher appealed to the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court agreed with the High Court's reasoning that the Managing Committee of a privately run school, even if it receives government financial aid, is not "State" within the meaning of Article 12 of the Constitution, and therefore a writ petition does not lie against its decisions on an employee's termination. The Court also held that an earlier consent order passed by the High Court could not retroactively confer writ jurisdiction over the Managing Committee or convert it into a "State" instrumentality. Finding no ground to take a different view from the concurrent findings of the Single Judge and Division Bench, the Supreme Court dismissed the appeal with no order as to costs.

Lesson Learnt

An employee of a privately managed institution, even one that receives government aid, generally cannot approach a court by way of a writ petition over an employment dispute, because such private management bodies are not treated as "the State" under the Constitution; the appropriate remedy usually lies in ordinary civil or statutory proceedings instead.

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

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