The teachers of the Colleges in Kerala have no right to get additional payment, for evaluating examination answer sheets of students, in addition to their salary and allowances, says the High Court of Kerala in in its judgement in Dr K Sankar v State of Kerala. This is because valuation of answer scripts is an integral part of the duties of the teachers.
The high court found that there was no statutory order or executive stipulation regarding payments of additional allowance for answer sheet evaluation. In fact, such payments were regularly made in the past for evaluating answer sheets, probably by misinterpreting the service rules. The teachers, however, have the right to get disbursement of actual expenses incurred by them for the purpose, if any.
Now the Accountant General of the State took objection to it. Therefore the teachers have taken the issue of getting additional allowance for evaluating answer scripts to the High Court in the above said writ petition.
The court directs that permitting such an additional payment, even though it was the practice in vogue in the past, amounts to an illegal enrichment and hence it cannot be continued. Therefore, the High Court disallowed the additional payment in view of the objections raised in the Audit Report by the State’s Accountant General.
However, the court directed the government to take a decision within two months whether such overpayments made in the past need to be recovered or not, as the recipients might have expended the amount.
Reference
- Dr K Sankar v State of Kerala: 2022(6) KHC 41
