right to fix the salary

Supreme Court of India

Satimbla Sharma & Ors vs St.Paul Sr.Secondary School & Ors on 11 August, 2011

Author: A K Patnaik

Bench: R.V. Raveendran, A.K. Patnai

 CIVIL APPEAL NO. 2676 OF 2010

9. In our considered opinion, the Division Bench the High Court has rightly held in the impugned

judgment that the teachers of private unaided minority schools had no right to claim salary equal to

that of their counterparts working in Government schools and Government aided schools. The teachers of Government

schools are paid out of the Government funds and the teachers of Government aided schools are

paid mostly out of the Government funds, whereas the teachers of private unaided minority schools

are paid out of the fees and other resources of the private schools. Moreover, unaided private

minority schools over which the Government has no administrative control because of their

autonomy under Article 30(1) of the Constitution are not State within the meaning of Article 12 of

the Constitution. As the right to equality under Article 14 of the Constitution is available against the

State, it cannot be claimed against unaided private minority schools. Similarly, such unaided private

schools are not State within the meaning of Article 36 read with Article 12 of the Constitution and as

the obligation to ensure equal pay for equal work in Article 39(d) is on the State, a private unaided

minority school is not under any duty to ensure equal pay for equal work