Orissa High Court Orders Equal Pay For Lecturer Of Private-Aided College, Says Govt Should Celebrate Citizens' Victory Against It

“The Government should celebrate citizen's victory against it, secured in due process of law,” rthe Orissa High Court remarked while directing the state government to grant equal pay scale to a Lecturer of government-aided private institution, at par with pay scale of corresponding class of employees of government institutions.Discarding the apprehension raised by the government that allowing such prayer may open floodgates of litigation, the Bench of Justice Dixit Krishna Shripad said –“Even the argument of 'opening of floodgates of litigations' is not acceptable. Our system operates on the maxim ubi jus ibi remedium. Rule of law requires State to abide by law, more particularly while treating the worthy claims of its employees. It was Marcus Tullius Cicero, who reiterated “law should be obeyed even if heavens fall down”. It is open to the State to pre-empt the opening of floodgates of litigations by extending the benefit of the policy on its own without avoidably driving other similarly circumstanced employees to litigation process.”The petitioner joined the opposite party-institution on 01.08.1993 as Lecturer in Mathematics. The institution has been receiving grant in-aid, as has been reflected in Odisha (Aided Colleges, Aided Junior Colleges and Aided Higher Secondary Schools) Grant-in-Aid Order, 2009 ('GIA Order, 2009'). The petitioner's appointment was approved and he was allowed to receive the block grant with effect from 01.02.2009.The GIA Order, 2009 was modified by the Orissa Non Government Aided College Lecturers' Placement Rules, 2014 ('2014 Placement Rules') promulgated under Section 10(1) of the Orissa Education Act, 1969, with effect from 01.01.2014. It provided for placement of the Lecturers to the higher grade with (Group-A) pay scale, which applied inter alia to the Lecturers of non-government aided colleges, who are in a particular pay scale to which the petitioner claims to belong. Claim of the petitioner for placement in terms of 2014 Placement Rules was not examined on merits in the Lok Adalat and the Additional Chief Secretary directed Administrative Department to examine his claim as per the existing Rules. The claim was considered by the Commissioner-cum-Secretary who passed the impugned order dismissing his claim. Hence, this writ petition was filed challenging the dismissal order.In order to defend the impugned order, the Additional Government Advocate took several pleas. One of such pleas was if the claimed relief is granted to the petitioner, the State exchequer will be severely affected. However, the Court rejected such argument by suggesting that the payment of benefits may be made with prospective effect so that economic hardship of the State is minimized. Justice Shripad further underlined that such policy ensuring decent payment to teachers/lecturers must be implemented thoroughly. In his words –“The laudable object of the policy in question is to boost the morale inter alia of teaching staff and to attract meritorious candidates to the noble profession of teaching. It is teachers, who play a pivotal role in building nations & civilizations. The British Government did not downwardly revise the pay scales of teachers during the World War-II, although it did, in all other employment sectors.”He further stressed that the legitimate rights of citizens cannot be allowed to be defeated by putting forth an “argument in terrorem”, i.e. advancing fear of loss of something rather than raising legal arguments. “The State and its instrumentalities under Article 12 of the Constitution of India cannot be heard to say that they will face difficulty if their Policies are implemented through the medium of Court. The Government should celebrate citizen's victory against it, secured in due process of law. More is not necessary to specify and less is insufficient to leave the things unsaid.”Resultantly, the opposite parties were directed to grant the claimed benefits to the petitioner with prospective effect, within a period of eight (8) weeks. The Court warned that default or delay shall be viewed seriously against the government authorities.Case Title: Lokanath Behera v. State of Odisha & Ors.Case No: W.P.(C) No. 2062 of 2024Date of Judgment: August 13, 2025Counsel for the Petitioner: M/s. Kunal Kumar Swain, K. Swain & J.R. Khuntia, AdvocatesCounsel for the Respondents: Mr. D.N. Lenka, Addl. Govt. Advocate [for O.P.Nos.1 to 4] Mr. Mahendra Kumar Sahoo, Advocate [for O.P.No.5]Citation: 2025 LiveLaw (Ori) 108Click Here To Read/Download Order

Orissa High Court Orders Equal Pay For Lecturer Of Private-Aided College, Says Govt Should Celebrate Citizens' Victory Against It

Jyoti Prakash Dutta

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