SC upholds HC order on grant-in-aid for aided educational institutions

Cuttack: In a setback to the state govt, Supreme Court has declined to interfere with a series of Orissa high court orders granting eligibility for full grant-in-aid (GIA) under GIA Order, 1994, to the employees of aided educational institutions.

A two-judge bench of the apex court, comprising Justice J K Maheswari and Justice Atul S Chandurka, in an order on March 25, dismissed Special Leave Petitions, arising out of a batch of appeals filed by the state govt, challenging the high court’s March 19, 2025, ruling, as well as those by private parties.

In the landmark high court judgment of March 19, 2025, Justice Biraja Prasanna Satapathy held that unaided, girls’ and higher secondary schools, besides colleges could not be denied the benefit of the GIA under the 1994 order if their cases had been duly recommended by the directorates concerned prior to the repeal of the scheme.

The GIA Order, 1994, which provided for full salary grants to eligible teaching and non-teaching staff of private educational institutions, was repealed on Feb 5, 2004, and replaced with a new order that limited the grant to partial assistance.

Justice Satapathy, while deciding over 100 appeals arising from the orders of the State Education Tribunal, upheld its decisions allowing grant-in-aid claims and set aside those rejecting them. He directed the state authorities to extend the benefits under the 1994 order and complete the entire exercise within six months.

Agreeing with this approach, the Supreme Court said, “The direction as issued by the High Court is completely in consonance with the reasoning as specified therein.” It added that the discretion had rightly been left to the state to assess each case based on verification and relevant court orders.

The Supreme Court also underlined that it was not inclined to take a different view, noting that “numerous Special Leave Petitions, more than approximately 60 in number … have already been dismissed” by it.

Even after hearing advocate general of the state, Pitambar Acharya, at length, the court said it found no grounds to revisit its earlier stance. Consequently, the appeals filed by the state were dismissed, while those filed by private individuals were disposed of with directions to follow the HC’s framework.

Since the matters had remained pending before the apex court, it further directed that the verification exercise be completed by the state within six months from the date of its order.

The ruling brings closure to a long-running dispute and is likely to affect a significant number of grant-in-aid claims in Odisha.