Terminating Employees Not Easy Anymore For Schools

With strict regulations being implemented on schools from time to time, the Delhi schools have been saddled with another compliance to be followed before terminating services of their employees as has been clarified by the Supreme Court of India ("SC") in its recent judgment passed in the matter of Raj Kumar vs. Director of Education & Others ("Judgment"). While considering in detail the provisions of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 ("ID Act") and the Delhi School Education Act, 1973 ("DSE Act") relating to termination of services of employees by schools, the SC interpreted Section 8(2)¹ of the DSE Act which requires obtaining prior approval of the Director of Education ("DoE") before passing any order of dismissal or termination of services of its employees by school. The SC in its Judgment has, inter alia, observed that Section 8(2) of the DSE Act is a procedural safeguard in favour of an employee to ensure that an order of termination or dismissal is not