Tamilnadu : Teachers' plea for benefits thrown out

The Madras High Court has rejected a plea from high school and higher secondary school teachers to extend the benefits enjoyed by the headma...

The Madras High Court has rejected a plea from high school and higher secondary school teachers to extend the benefits enjoyed by the headmasters of elementary school.

Justice D Hariparanthaman rejected the plea while dismissing a batch of writ petitions from S Arulappan and 129 others, praying for a direction to the government to extend the benefits of a GO dated March 23, 1993 and subsequent GOs passed in 2010 in the light of the orders of a division bench of the High Court and confirmed by the Supreme Court.

The petitioners were working as secondary grade teachers in government high and higher secondary schools in the State. They were governed by the Higher Educational Subordinate Service Rules under the control of Director of School Education.

On completion of 10 and 20 years service, they claimed selection grade and special grade pay on a par with elementary school HMs, respectively.

The judge pointed out that the petitioners were a separate class of people governed by the Higher Educational Subordinate Service Rules and came under the School Education Director. Their service conditions could not be compared with the service conditions of teachers in primary schools, who were governed by a different set of rules.