Court Appointed Committees Can't Perform Judicial Functions On Claims Over School Fee Hike, Payment Of Teachers' Salaries: Delhi High Court

The Delhi High Court has ruled that the Committees appointed by the Court on zonal and central level to decide on fee hike and payment of teachers of unaided private schools in the national capital cannot perform judicial functions. A division bench comprising Justice Subramonium Prasad and Justice Vimal Kumar Yadav observed that the committees set-up by the Court are different from the committees set up by the Government conferring certain adjudicatory rights. The Court observed that Courts cannot relegate judicial functions to the Committees asking them to adjudicate upon a lis— which is the function of Courts or Tribunals. “The judicial functions are to be discharged by the Judges and cannot be delegated to any Committee formed by Courts. Committees can only be constituted by the Courts to give a report on the facts to assist the Court in adjudicating rival claims,” the Court said. The bench was dealing with a batch of appeals filed by various private schools against a single judge decision directing the Delhi Government to constitute Committees at zonal and central levels. The purpose of the said Committees were to supervise implementation of recommendations prescribed in 6th and 7th Central Pay Commission (CPC) regarding payment of salaries and arrears to staff of private unaided schools and recognized private unaided minority schools in Delhi. Disposing of the appeals, the Court held that the portion of the impugned ruling where the single judge constituted Committees to deal with the issues of fee hike, payment of salaries to the teachers and to consider as to whether they would be entitled to the claims actually amounted to relegating the judicial functions to the said Committees, which is not permissible in law.It said that the Courts, in exercise of their powers under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, can constitute committees but the said committees are only fact finding in nature. “Judicial functions cannot be relegated to these Committees. What the learned Single Judge has done is that he has conferred upon the Committees the judicial power to decide the entitlement/claim of teachers by considering their claims and the objections raised by the Schools. Furthermore, there is no representative of the teachers in the Committee,” the Court said. It further added that at best, the Single Judge could have formed the Committees to furnish a report to the Court and then the Court ought to have adjudicated upon the issues raised by the teachers and the schools without giving the Committees the power to decide the issues.The Bench set aside the impugned ruling and remanded the matter back to the Roster Bench for fresh consideration. “It is made clear that this Court has not made any observations on the merits of the case and all the rights and contentions of the parties are left open to be adjudicated by the learned Single Judge,” the Court ordered.Title: RENU ARORA AND OTHERS v. ST. MARGARET SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL & ANR & other connected mattersCitation: 2025 LiveLaw (Del) 1380Click here to read order

Court Appointed Committees Can't Perform Judicial Functions On Claims Over School Fee Hike, Payment Of Teachers' Salaries: Delhi High Court

Nupur Thapliyal

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