Kerala HC sets aside order enhancing honorarium of pre-primary teachers, ayahs

Kochi: High court has set aside the part of a single bench order which had directed the state govt to enhance the honorarium of pre-primary teachers and ayahs to Rs 27,500 and Rs 22,500, respectively.A division bench of Justice Anil K Narendra and Justice S Muralee Krishna, meanwhile, directed the govt to formulate the service conditions of pre-primary teachers and ayahs within four months, as ordered by the single bench. HC also directed the state govt to fix their honorarium on an ad hoc basis within a period of two months. The court was considering appeals filed by the state govt challenging the single bench order directing enhancement of the honorarium of pre-primary teachers and ayahs to Rs 27,500 and Rs 22,500, respectively, with effect from March 2025, to be disbursed from April 2025.In an earlier round of litigation in 2012, a division bench had directed the govt to frame service rules for these teachers and ayahs and had suggested payment of Rs 5,000 and Rs 3,500, respectively, as an interim measure. However, no action was taken, resulting in a second round of litigation in which the single bench fixed the honorarium on an ad hoc basis, pending formulation of the service conditions, prompting the state govt to file the appeals.Considering the appeals, the division bench observed that fixation of pay and allowances of govt servants falls within the domain of the govt and that a writ court can grant such relief in exercise of its extraordinary jurisdiction only in exceptional circumstances. HC further observed that the court is not an expert body to determine the payments to be made to employees, as such an exercise requires consideration of several aspects, including pay parity, the nature of work performed, and inflation. Therefore, the single bench ought not to have fixed the honorarium, it held.At the same time, HC noted that despite the earlier division bench order issued in 2012 directing the formulation of service conditions for pre-primary teachers and ayahs, the govt had failed to comply with the directions for several years. “It is a classic example of how the state machinery can make a particular class of employees run pillar to post seeking redressal of their grievance for fixation of pay and other service conditions by adopting various delay tactics and bureaucratic laziness, though the incumbents obtained a judgment in their favour from the court,” HC observed.