Holding that a state-aided minority school is free to appoint teachers without prior approval of the government, the Delhi High Court has imposed a fine of Rs 5,000 on the city government for sacking a woman teacher of Quami Senior Secondary School here over a decade ago.
Quashing the city government”s order, which sacked minority school”s Assistant Teacher Shehla Nawab on the ground that the school had no prior permission from the government to appoint her, Justice Muralidhar restored her job and directed the Directorate of Education (DoE) to pay her back wages with six per cent interest from April 1999 till date.
“It is clear that a minority aided school within the meaning of Delhi School Education Act (DSEA) and Delhi School Education Rules (DSER) is free to appoint its teachers without having to get prior approval of DoE,” the court said.
“There was no requirement for the management of the school to have sought approval of the DoE for appointment of the petitioner as assistant teacher. With this clean legal position, the impugned decision of the DoE is unsustainable,” the court said agreeing with Nawab”s counsel Tariq Siddiqui.
“The school (QSSS) will within a period of two weeks write to DoE intimating the amount that is payable to the petitioner as salary for the date of filing the writ petition i.e. April, 26, 1999 till the date of payment, which should be within 12 weeks of the date of judgement July 29,” it said.
Nawab was appointed in April 1996 by QSSS as an assistant teacher but the school”s application for approval of her appointment was rejected by DoE in March 1999 on the ground that the school had not obtained prior permission to appoint her which was against the Delhi Education Act rules.
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