Chhattisgarh HC stays BEO’s order to recover incremented pay from headmaster | Raipur News

RAIPUR: The Chhattisgarh high court has stayed an order issued by the Block Education Officer (BEO), Pandariya, in Kabeerdham district, which sought to recover incremental pay scale amounts from Sanjay Kumar Chandravanshi, headmaster at Government Primary School, Girdharikapa. The BEO’s order was dated 14 May 2025.Chandravanshi was first appointed as a Shiksha Karmi Grade 3 in 1998. His services were merged with the School Education Department in 2018, and he was promoted to headmaster in 2022.As per an order issued by the Chhattisgarh government’s General Administration Department on 10 March 2017, assistant teachers are to be granted their first pay scale increment after 10 years and a second increment after 20 years.Chandravanshi, despite completing 10 years of service, was not granted his first pay scale increment. He filed a petition in the High Court, which heard the matter in January 2021. The court directed that a decision on his representation for the increment be made within four months.Following the HC’s directive, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Janpad Panchayat Pandariya, Kabeerdham district, approved an agenda on 8 October 2020, sanctioning the incremented pay scale for Chandravanshi.Chandravanshi began receiving the incremented pay scale from January 2021 and continued to receive it until April 2025. However, the Block Education Officer, Pandariya, Kabeerdham district, issued an order on 14 May 2025, directing that Chandravanshi be paid the minimum salary from May 2025 and that the excess amount paid previously be recovered.Aggrieved by this order, Chandravanshi filed a petition in the High Court through his counsels, Mateen Siddiqui and Narendra Meher. The case was heard in the court of Justice Ravindra Kumar Agrawal.Siddiqui argued that the recovery of the incremented pay scale and reduction of salary without prior notice was illegal, especially since Chandravanshi had been receiving the incremented pay scale from January 2021 to April 2025.Based on these arguments, the High Court stayed the BEO Pandariya’s order dated 14 May 2025. The court also issued notices to the respondents, the Chief Executive Officer, District Panchayat Kabeerdham, and the Chief Executive Officer, Janpad Panchayat Pandariya, seeking their responses.