Hon'ble Supreme Court of India in its recent judgment passed in the matter of Raj Kumar vs. Director of Education & Others7, explicitly instructed the schools in Delhi regarding compliance to be followed before terminating services of their employees. While considering in detail the provisions of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 (IDA) and the Delhi School Education Act, 1973 (DSEA) relating to termination of services of employees by schools, the Hon'ble Supreme Court interpreted Section 8(2) of the DSEA which requires obtaining prior approval of the Director of Education (DoE) before passing any order of dismissal or termination of services of its employees by school. A perusal of the Statement of objects and reasons of the DSEA clearly shows that the intent of the legislature while enacting the same was to provide security of tenure to the employees of the school and to regulate the terms and conditions of their employment. The Hon'ble Apex Court in its judgment has, inter alia, observed that Section 8(2)8 of the DSEA is a procedural safeguard in favor of an employee to ensure that an order of termination or dismissal is not passed without the prior approval of DoE.

The Hon'ble Apex Court observed that while the functioning of both aided and unaided educational institutions must be free from unnecessary governmental interference, the same needs to be reconciled with the conditions of employment of the employees of these institutions and provision of adequate precautions to safeguard their interests. Section 8(2) of the DSEA is one such precautionary safeguard which needs to be followed to ensure that employees of educational institutions do not suffer unfair treatment at the hands of the management. The Hon'ble Apex Court had earlier9 held that the regulation of the service conditions of the employees of private recognized schools is required to be controlled by educational authorities and the state legislature is empowered to legislate such provision in the DSEA. In other words, Section 8(2) of the DSEA is a procedural safeguard in favor of an employee to ensure that an order of termination or dismissal is not passed without the prior approval of the Director of Education. This is to avoid arbitrary or unreasonable termination or dismissal of an employee of a recognized private school.

Footnotes

7. h t t p : / / j u d i s . n i c . i n / s u p r eme c o u r t / i m g s1. aspx?filename=43544

8. Subject to any rule that may be made in this behalf, no employee of a recognized private school shall be dismissed, removed or reduced in rank nor shall his service be otherwise terminated excepted with the prior approval of the Director

9. TMA PAI Foundation vs. State of Karnataka ((2002) 8 SCC 481)

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