BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court has upheld the provisions of the Payment of Gratuity (Amendment) Act, 2009, mandating gratuity with retrospective effect to teachers working in private educational institutions. It has come as relief to thousands of teachers working in various private educational institutions.
Justice Ashok B Hinchigeri pronounced the judgement on a batch of petitions filed by Sarvodaya Education Trust of Virajpet. The Trust had challenged the newly substituted Section 2(e) and newly inserted Section 13-A of the Act and also its retrospective operation from April 3, 1997. Section 2(e) brought teachers serving in unaided institutions within the ambit of the Act and Section 13-A validated and mandated the payment of gratuity from April 3, 1997 till the date the President gives his ascent to the amendment to the Act which was passed in Parliament on December 31, 2009.
While dismissing the petitions, the judge observed that the contention that service and conduct rules of the petitioners (educational institutions) do not provide for the payment of gratuity to teachers is too slender a ground for the court’s interference. On the ground that the educational institutions have not collected amounts from the students for payment of gratuity to its teachers, that the payment of gratuity makes the working of educational institutions unviable, etc., the court’s interference is not warranted, the judge noted.
The judge also felt that the teachers have no strength when it comes to the question of negotiating with the management. An unemployed person who is appointed as a teacher would have no strength and perhaps no occasion to oppose any provision of the bye-laws of the educational society.