HimVani
Shimla: The Himachal Pradesh High Court today directed the state government to grant the scale of school lecturers to physical education teachers, who possess the minimum educational qualifications laid down by National Council for Teacher Education and are teaching plus one and plus two classes in the senior secondary schools of the state. This new pay scale will be applicable to all eligible physical education teachers in the state. The court has also cautioned the state government that the arrears must be paid or credited to the accounts of the person found eligible on or before 30th April, 2011, failing which the state will be liable to pay interest at 12 percent per annum.
Justice Deepak Gupta passed this order on a petition filed by 94 aggrieved teachers alleging that colleagues teaching other subjects in plus one and plus two classes of senior secondary schools are designated as lecturers (School cadre) and are paid the scales of a lecturer, whereas the petitioners are neither paid or designated as such. The petitioners claimed that they fulfill all requisite qualifications for being appointed as lecturers in physical education and they should be designated as such. While passing the above order, the court observed that the administrative as well as finance department had recommended the posts of these teachers to be upgraded to those of lecturers and had supported the recommendations with reasons. However, the state cabinet had rejected this proposal.
