The outbreak of Covid-19 has led to a situation of uncertainty and chaos among all the sectors. This pandemic has equally affected the educational sector. One such example is of the teachers who are forced to upgrade their mode of teaching from online to offline overnight and at the same time, they are not paid their due salaries.

• Teacher’s plight:

Despite working for longer hours than before, teachers are not paid their due salaries. The school management is deducting their salaries arbitrarily without giving any reasons for such deduction. A vague excuse is made by stating that the students are not paying the fees and there is no income generation out of which their salaries could be paid. Interestingly, school management has not opened its books of accounts to satisfy teachers for such arbitrary deduction.

• Has Govt. come to rescue teachers?

The Directorate of Education, Government of NCT of Delhi, in its order no. F.No. PS/DE/2020/55, Dated 18th April 2020 promulgated an order and stated that some schools were indulging in various malpractices which were inhumane especially in view of outbreak of COVID-19 Pandemic.

As per clause (iv) of the said order, some private schools are not paying salary to the teaching and non-teaching staffs in this ongoing lockdown or paying less salary to the extent of 40% to 50% of their total emolument. Such acts of the schools are against the spirit of direction of Govt. of Delhi as well as relevant provisions of Delhi School Education Act, 1973 (DSEA). This order was issued under Section 17(3) of the DSEA and Rule 43 of Delhi School Education Rules, 1973 (DSER).

What is Section 17(3) of DSEA?

It states that at the beginning of each academic session, the manager of every recognized school has to file with the Director of Education a full statement of the fees which the school plans to charge from students during the academic session. It also states that without prior approval from the Director of Education, no such school will charge during that academic session, any extra apart from the one mentioned above.

What is Rule 43 of DSER?

This rule grants power to the Administrator to issue instructions as he finds them appropriate in the interests of education. Thus under clause (x) of the aforesaid order, private unaided recognized schools were directed to neither stop payment of salaries nor reduce the existing total emoluments of the teaching and non-teaching staff of their schools in the name of non-availability of funds and were further directed to arrange the funds in case of any shortfalls from the Society/Trust running the school.

Additionally, Rule 177 of DSER, clearly directs an unaided recognized school to firstly and fore-mostly pay salary, allowances and other benefits to its employees from the fees collected from the students.

Have Courts interfered till now?

On 18 June 2020 a petition was filed in the Delhi High Court (DHC) wherein teachers teaching in North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) schools had not received salaries since beginning of lockdown i.e. March 2020. DHC ordered NDMC to pay the arrears of the teachers’ salaries in the schools run by it.

Another petition Rajat Vats v. GNCTD [W.P. (C) 2977/2020 & CM Nos. 10327-28/2020] was filed in Delhi High Court for challenging fee collection by schools during the lockdown period. The held that tuition fees is to be paid mandatory by the students as almost all schools were conducting online classes and teachers were discharging their functions i.e. imparting course work over online platforms, checking project work online, correcting papers wherein students have already given examinations, preparing questions and lessons taught and supervising students to complete the work given etc. The court further held that there is also a burden on the schools to pay their staff during these months.

Are schools liable to pay to its teachers?

After collectively reading the above mentioned notification and orders, schools are bound to pay salaries to its teachers and cannot deny or reduce their salaries.

What can teachers do if they are not paid?

1. Firstly, write a letter to the school intimating the above mentioned notification and judgment. Also demand payment of arrears, pending salary and other such reliefs from the school within a stipulated time period.
2. If the school is still adamant and does not take any action, send a legal notice to the school through a lawyer demanding payment of arrears and pending salary in a stipulated time period. Also mention that if such payment is not done within such period, the teacher would take appropriate legal proceedings against the school.
3. If the school does not pay even after the receipt of the legal notice, file a writ petition of ‘Mandamus’ in the High Court seeking direction to the school to pay arrears and pending salary.

Conclusion

The Directorate of Education has ensured through its notifications that teachers are paid their full salaries without any deductions or delay. The said notification also guarantees payment of salaries to the teachers by taking out funds from the existing corpus of the school. But the schools are deliberately not paying salaries to its teachers.