Lucknow: A Lucknow bench of Allahabad high court has ruled that assistant teachers who served as acting headmasters for prolonged periods are entitled to the salary of a headmaster from the date they assumed charge, removing a restriction that limited arrears to three years prior to filing of the writ petitions.Justice Pankaj Bhatia passed the order while disposing of a batch of petitions filed by 1,030 petitioners, including Poonam Rani Varshney.The petitioners argued that regular headmasters had not been appointed in their schools and that they had been discharging the duties of headmasters for varying periods without receiving the salary attached to the post.Referring to an earlier judgment that recognised the right of acting headmasters to receive the salary of the post they were holding, the court observed that wages earned for services rendered as an acting headmaster constitute a valuable right akin to property. It, therefore, found no justification for restricting salary arrears to three years.The court directed the authorities to pay all petitioners the salary of a headmaster from the date they began functioning as acting headmasters until the actual payment of their dues.The bench also noted that state govt had subsequently issued govt orders providing for payment of salaries to in charge headmasters on a par with regular headmasters.
