G.O. 79 does not automatically convert existing Secondary Grade appointments into Middle Grade Graduate posts.

The petitioner, who held M.Sc. and B.Ed. qualifications, was appointed as a Secondary Grade Teacher in an aided minority school on 3 September 1998 against a vacancy arising on 1 June 1998.

Her appointment was not approved because she lacked the prescribed D.T.Ed. qualification and was appointed after the 19 May 1998 cut-off applicable to the scheme for regularising B.Ed.-qualified teachers appointed against Secondary Grade posts.

She was later approved as a Middle Grade Graduate Teacher from 1 June 2006, but her earlier service from 3 September 1998 to 31 May 2006 was not recognised.

After earlier representations and proceedings concerning approval and pensionary service, she sought approval from 14 June 2002 under G.O.Ms. No. 79; the educational authorities rejected her requests, and she filed the present writ petition.

G.O.Ms. No. 559 dated 11 July 1995 prohibited the appointment of B.Ed.-qualified persons to Secondary Grade Teacher vacancies.

In Secretary and Correspondent, Uswathun Hasana Oriental (Arabic) Girls Higher Secondary School v. State of Tamil Nadu, 2002 WLR 173, the Division Bench directed the Government to frame a scheme for approving such appointments made up to 19 May 1998; G.O.Ms. No. 155 dated 3 October 2002 implemented that scheme, including the requirement of one month’s Child Psychology training.

State of Tamil Nadu v. Pallivasal Primary School, 2004 (2) LW 591, upheld G.O.Ms. No. 155 and held, among other things, that service rendered before completion of the training could be counted for pension purposes.

G.O.Ms. No. 79 dated 14 June 2002 provided for upgrading a Secondary Grade post when it fell vacant and filling it as a Middle Grade Graduate Teacher post; it did not automatically convert an existing appointment or retrospectively approve it.

The petitioner’s appointment was against a vacancy that had arisen in 1998, not a vacancy shown to have arisen and been upgraded after G.O.Ms. No. 79 came into force.

The order therefore did not provide a basis to deem her existing appointment converted to a Middle Grade Graduate Teacher appointment from 14 June 2002.

Further, earlier administrative orders rejecting her claims had not been challenged and had attained finality, preventing her from re-agitating those claims.

However, applying Pallivasal Primary School, the Court considered it appropriate to recognise the relevant earlier service for pension purposes, notwithstanding that the requested approval and salary could not be granted.

It nevertheless directed that the petitioner’s service from 3 September 1998 to 31 May 2006 be reckoned only for pensionary purposes, subject to her satisfying the applicable pension rules.

The writ petition was disposed of on those terms, with no order as to costs.