High Court’s intervention helps KV teacher to get salary du

MUMBAI, June 4: The Bombay High Court has ordered the Kendriya Vidyalaya, Colaba to pay its Hindi teacher her salary, due since September 1996.

The Mumbai-based teacher moved the court against six respondents, including the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sanghathan, a Central government-run chain of schools imparting education to children of the armed forces and government employees. The Commissioner, Deputy Commissioner and Assistant Commissioner (Mumbai region) are parties to the petition, whereas the main grievance is against the KV Colaba principal, L J Singh. Indira Pandey, the senior-most post-graduate teacher in Hindi, an employee since 1982, argued her case in person in Justice A Y Sakhare’s courtroom. As per the petition, Singh had misbehaved with Pandey. She filed a police complaint against him in 1995. In August 1996, she was transferred to KV Porbander. The principal relieved her from the Colaba school posting and pasted copies of the transfer order in the school. The petition states that in spite of this, she was not allowed to resume her duties since September 1996. She also alleged that the Assistant Commissioner, who is the administrative controller of the Mumbai region, did not pay attention to her complaints against the transfer order. Meanwhile, her transfer order was modified and she was posted to KV, Nasik.

While the transfer order was kept in abeyance by the Union Minister of State for Education, she was not allowed to sign the muster, use the ladies’ staff room, the canteen and library facilities.. After hearing Pandey, Justice Sakhare ruled, “Prima facie, I feel that withholding her salary is not justified. I direct the Principal and Assistant Commisoner to pay the salary within two weeks. ” When contacted, Principal L J Singh said he had approached the governmental lawyer for future legal proceedings.