Rajasthan High Court - Jaipur
Ranglal Meena vs State Of Raj & Ors on 20 November, 2013
Author: Mn Bhandari
Bench: Mn Bhandari
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE FOR RAJASTHAN JAIPUR BENCH, JAIPUR ORDER SB Civil Writ Petition No.12241/2013 Ashok Kumar Sharma & ors versus State of Rajasthan & ors AND SB Civil Writ Petition 4145/2006 Sunita Sharma Vs. State of Rajasthan And Ors. AND SB Civil Writ Petition 14485/2009 Manoj Kumar Raigar & Anr. Vs. State of Rajasthan & Ors. AND SB Civil Writ Petition 15796/2009 Dinesh Kumar Sharma Vs. State Of Rajasthan & Ors. AND SB Civil Writ Petition 16023/2009 Vishnu Kumar Jangid Vs. State Of Rajasthan & Ors. AND SB Civil Writ Petition 6133/2010 Dinesh Kumar Sharma Vs.State Of Rajasthan & Ors. AND SB Civil Writ Petition 6577/2010 Rajkumar Meghwal And Ors. Vs.State of Raj & Ors. AND SB Civil Writ Petition 6756/2010 Pooja Joshi Vs.State Of Raj. And Ors. AND SB Civil Writ Petition 7198/2010 Kumari Meenakshi Vs. State of Raj.& Ors. AND SB Civil Writ Petition 7423/2010 Rajendra Kumar Yadav Vs.State Of Rajasthan & Ors. AND SB Civil Writ Petition 7436/2010 Mukesh Rathore And Anr.Vs. State Of Rajasthan & Ors. AND SB Civil Writ Petition 15888/2010 Raj Kumar & Ors.Vs. State Of Rajasthan & Ors. AND SB Civil Writ Petition 559/2011 Hansa Kumari And Ors.Vs. State Of Rajasthan & Ors. AND SB Civil Writ Petition 606/2011 Krishna Kumar Gupta And Ors.Vs. State Of Rajasthan & Ors. AND SB Civil Writ Petition 753/2011 Ranglal Meena Vs. State Of Rajasthan & Ors. AND SB Civil Writ Petition 3384/2011 Pawan Kumar Singhal And Ors.Vs. State Of Rajasthan & Ors. AND SB Civil Writ Petition 3659/2011 Dhanraj Singh And Ors.Vs. State Of Rajasthan & Ors. AND SB Civil Writ Petition 6545/2011 Mahendra Kumar Veshnav & Ors. Vs. State And Ors. AND SB Civil Writ Petition 6796/2011 Rajendra Kumar Vs. State of Rajasthan & Ors. AND SB Civil Writ Petition 9098/2011 Rama Kant Sharma And Ors.Vs. Director Commi. Education Ors. AND SB Civil Writ Petition 9460/2011 Smt.Rachana Sharma Vs. State of Rajasthan & Ors. AND SB Civil Writ Petition 10757/2011 Ranjeeta Vs. State of Rajasthan & Ors. AND SB Civil Writ Petition 12467/2011 Moin Ahmed And Ors. Vs. State of Rajasthan & Ors. AND SB Civil Writ Petition 12513/2011 Hansraj Meena & Ors.Vs. State of Rajasthan & Ors. AND SB Civil Writ Petition13106/2011 Parvez Faisal And Ors.Vs. State of Rajasthan & Ors. AND SB Civil Writ Petition 18440/2011 Mohan Singh & Ors.Vs. State of Rajasthan & Ors. AND SB Civil Writ Petition 7074/2012 Ramesh Chand Khatik Vs. State of Rajasthan & Ors. AND SB Civil Writ Petition 15042/2012 Anjana Sharma Vs. State of Rajasthan & Ors. AND SB Civil Writ Petition 17782/2012 Govind Sahai Sharma Vs. State of Rajasthan & Ors. AND SB Civil Writ Petition 1279/2013 Mrs.Seema Chawla Vs. State of Rajasthan & Ors. AND SB Civil Writ Petition 7788/2013 Devendar Singh Vs. State of Rajasthan & Ors. AND SB Civil Writ Petition 11071/2013 Ashok Kumar Sharma And Ors.Vs. State of Rajasthan & Ors. AND SB Civil Writ Petition13256/2013 Rakesh Kumar Sharma Vs. State of Rajasthan & Ors. AND SB Civil Writ Petition 14291/2013 Babulal Vs. Director Elementary Edu. And Ors. AND SB Civil Writ Petition 15651/2013 Karni Singh Vs. State of Rajasthan & Ors. AND SB Civil Writ Petition 16387/2013 Mahesh Chand Meena Vs. State of Rajasthan & Ors. AND SB Civil Writ Petition 16615/2013 Dilip Yogi Vs. State of Rajasthan & Ors. AND SB Civil Writ Petition 16738/2013 Dharamveer Sharma Vs. State of Rajasthan & Ors. AND SB Civil Writ Petition 17216/2013 Pradeep Kumar Vashishth & Anr.Vs. State of Rajasthan & Ors. AND SB Civil Writ Petition 17992/2013 Balveer Jaajara Vs. State of Rajasthan & Ors. AND SB Civil Writ Petition 19112/2013 Mukesh Singh Vs. State of Rajasthan & Ors. AND SB Civil Writ Petition 19239/2013 Mahipal Singh Nehra Vs. State of Rajasthan & Ors. AND SB Civil Writ Petition 19404/2013 Madan Lal Bairwa Vs. State of Rajasthan & ors AND SB Civil Writ Petition 19623/2013 Ramavtar Vs. State of Rajasthan & Ors. AND SB Civil Writ Petition No. 19411/2013 Jagdish Prasad Kumawat versus State of Rajasthan & ors 20.11.2013 PRESENT HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE MN BHANDARI Mr Kailash Sharma Mr Mahendra Sharma Mr Raghunandan Sharma Mr Ram Pratap Saini Ms Rashmi Jain Mr BBL Sharma Mr CP Sharma Mr Nawal Singh Sikarwar Mr PP Singh Mr Manish Sharma Mr Vinod Kumar Sharma Mr Sandeep Saxena Mr Naveen Dhuwan Mr Imran Khan Mr SK Gupta Mr DC Gupta Mr RD Meena Mr Raj Kumar Kasana Mr RB Sharma Mr Sumit Khandelwal Mr Laxmikant Sharma Mr RDS Naruka Mr Kunal Rawat Mr RS Bhardwaj Mr Amit Singh Shekhawat Mr Ashish Saksena Mr GL Sharma Mr Banwari Sharma - for petitioner(s) Mr SN Kumawat, Additional Advocate General for respondents BY THE COURT:
Since on same set of facts, similar relief has been claimed, all these writ petitions have been heard together and decided by this common order.
This bunch of writ petitions is by those who are either working as Vidhyarthi Mitra or earlier worked on the said post thus claiming either continuance on the post or certain benefits accruing in their favour. It may be in regard to non-payment of the amount despite their working as Vidhyarthi Mitra and, in few cases, a direction is sought for bonus marks towards experience as Vidhyarthi Mitra in the selection for different posts.
Mr SN Kumawat, Additional Advocate General submits that Vidhyarthi Mitra Scheme framed by the State Government has been declared illegal and unconstitutional by the co-ordinate Bench of this court at Principal Seat, Jodhpur in the bunch of writ petitions led by Tilok Singh & ors versus State of Rajasthan & ors, SB Civil Writ Petition No. 10339/2012, decided on 21.10.2013. In view of above, any challenge to the order of termination or claim for continuance/ re-employment is not maintainable, rather, all the writ petitions may be governed and decided in the light of the directions in paras 40, 41 and 42 of the said judgment. If any of the petitioners were not paid due amount despite working as Vidhyarthi Mitra, the direction given in above paras would automatically apply to such cases and, otherwise, rights accrued to the petitioners while working on the post of Vidhyarthi Mitra has been saved.
Learned counsel for petitioners, on the other hand, submit that the judgment in the case supra does not bar continuance of the employees till currency of the agreement, rather, all the petitioners may be continued till currency of the period of agreement and may not be discontinued till regularly selected candidates are made available. The claim of experience certificate has been made treating to be accrued benefit while petitioners had worked as Vidhyarthi Mitra.
I have considered submissions of learned counsel for the parties and perused the record besides the judgment supra.
I find that in the case of Tilok Singh & ors (supra) the issue of validity of Vidhyarthi Mitra Scheme came up for consideration before the court and, therein, it was held to be illegal and unconstitutional with certain directions. Paras 40 to 42 of the above judgment are reproduced hereasunder -
40. In view of the discussion above, this Court is firmly of the opinion that the Scheme introduced by the State Government providing for the engagement of even unqualified/ untrained persons as Vidhyarthi Mitra for their posting against the posts of Teacher Gr.III, Senior Teacher and School Lecturer dehors the relevant recruitment Rules and the eligibility criteria laid down by the NCTE exercising the power under the relevant statute, the provisions of the Act of 2009, and against the constitutional scheme of public employment, cannot but deemed to be illegal, arbitrary and falls foul of Article 14, 21 & 21A of the Constitution of India.
41. Since the Scheme providing for the engagement of Vidhyarthi Mitra against the vacant posts of Teachers is found to be unconstitutional, no directions can be issued by this court to permit the continuance in employment of the petitioners and their likes under the said Scheme, which will obviously amount to perpetuating an illegality. Of course, the petitioners who have discharged the duties as Vidhyarthi Mitra but have not been paid the honorarium for the period they have worked are entitled to relief to this extent inasmuch as the State Government cannot be permitted to deny the payment due to them as honorarium for the period they have discharged the duties against the posts of Teachers as Vidhyarthi Mitra in various schools run by the State.
42. In the result, the writ petition No.8154/10 is allowed. The writ petitions preferred by the petitioners assailing their termination from service, claiming continuance/ re-employment as Vidhyarthi Mitra and against the insistence of the Government for execution of the fresh contract, are dismissed. The Vidhyarthi Mitra Scheme introduced by the State Government for engagement of 'Vidhyarthi Mitra' on contractual basis on fixed honorarium against the posts of Teachers Gr.III, Senior Teachers and School Lecturers is declared illegal and unconstitutional. The respondents are restrained from engaging the Vidhyarthi Mitra under the Vidhyarthi Mitra Scheme against the posts of Teachers Gr.III, Senior Teachers and School Lecturers. The respondents are directed to proceed with the recruitment process to fill in all the vacant posts of Teachers and School Lecturers in various services/cadres forthwith and complete the process as early as possible, in any case, within a period of six months from the date of receipt of certified copy of this order. It is made clear that pending completion of the regular recruitment process, the State shall not be precluded from engaging the eligible persons on the various posts of Teachers on urgent temporary basis in accordance with the relevant recruitment Rules. The State shall also ensure that henceforth the determination of the vacancies of Teachers in various services/cadres is made every year as mandated by the relevant recruitment Rules and all efforts shall be made to fill up the vacancies preferably before the next academic session starts in the schools run by the State. The petitioners who have not been paid honorarium for the period they had worked with the respondents as Vidhyarthi Mitra, shall be paid the amount due within a period of two months from the date of receipt of certified copy of this order. It is made clear that on account of the Vidhyarthi Mitra Scheme being declared illegal and unconstitutional, the petitioners and their likes who had worked with the respondents as Vidhyarthi Mitra, shall not be deprived of the benefits already accrued to them. No order as to costs.
In view of the directions quoted above, all these writ petitions so as the stay applications are disposed of and ordered to be governed in terms of the directions given therein. A para quoted above gives a direction to the respondents to pay outstanding amount to the petitioners within two months from the date of receipt of copy of the order. All the issues raised in the writ petitions would be governed in terms of the paras quoted above which include the issue in regard to claim for experience certificate for grant of bonus marks.
Learned counsel for both the parties pray that in case of Special Appeal against the judgment in the case of Tilok Singh (supra), all the parties would be abided by the final outcome of the Special Appeal.
As prayed, it is made clear that this judgment would be governed by the final outcome of the Special Appeal, if preferred by any of the parties against the judgment in the case of Tilok Singh (supra). Thus, parties would be abided by the judgment in the Special Appeal or the SLP, as the case may be.
(MN BHANDARI), J.
bnsharma All corrections made in the judgment/ order have been incorporated in the judgment/ order being emailed.
(BN Sharma) PS-cum-J