HP High Court Upholds Two-Year Salary Extension for Teacher Who Received NSS National Award from President

The Himachal Pradesh High Court dismissed the State's appeal, holding that a teacher awarded the Indira Gandhi NSS Award by the President was entitled to two years of salary increment under the 2015 notification, rejecting the State's argument that the award fell outside the notification's scope.

The Division Bench of the High Court of Himachal Pradesh, led by Chief Justice G.S. Sandhawalia and Justice Bipin Chander Negi, on 3 June 2026 dismissed a Letters Patent Appeal filed by the State of Himachal Pradesh against a Single Judge order that had directed payment of two years' emoluments to a retired teacher, Daleep Kumar. The teacher had received the Indira Gandhi National Service Scheme Award from the President of India in November 2012 but was denied the benefit of extended service under a State notification issued in September 2015. The Division Bench found no infirmity in the Single Judge's reasoning and declined to interfere, holding that the State could not distance itself from an award conferred on its own employee through a nationally constituted selection process.

The Dispute Before the High Court

Daleep Kumar joined as a Lecturer in History in the School Cadre on 7 December 1995 and was promoted to the post of Principal on 15 April 2017. In July 2022, he was sent on deputation as Incharge of the National Service Scheme in the Department of Higher Education. In that capacity, he worked as Programme Coordinator, NSS, and was credited with increasing the number of NSS units from 149 to 150 in the State.

During the year 2011–2012, the Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports, Government of India, recommended him for the Indira Gandhi NSS Award. The award was conferred by the President of India on 19 November 2012 at Darbar Hall, Rashtrapati Bhawan. A letter dated 26 October 2012 from the Department of Youth Affairs confirmed his participation in the award distribution ceremony.

Daleep Kumar retired on 1 June 2023 upon attaining the age of 60 years. He claimed that under the Government of Himachal Pradesh notification dated 24 September 2015, teachers who had received national awards were entitled to two years of salary increment, and that this benefit had been wrongly denied to him. After repeated communications to the State went unanswered, he filed CWP No.8824 of 2023 before the Single Judge.

The Single Judge allowed the writ petition on 18 November 2025, holding that Daleep Kumar was entitled to emoluments for two years — from 1 June 2023 to 31 May 2025 — to be paid after adjusting the pension already received for that period. The State then filed LPA No.190 of 2026 before the Division Bench.

The 2015 Notification and the State's Objection

The notification dated 24 September 2015, issued by the Elementary Education Department of the Government of Himachal Pradesh, stated that it superseded all earlier notifications. It approved two years of salary increment for teachers who had received national awards, and one year of extension of service for teachers who had received State-level awards. The notification was to take effect from the date of its issue.

The State's position, reiterated before the Division Bench by Additional Advocate General Rakesh Dhaulta, was that the benefit under the notification applied only where the selection of teachers for the State Award was made by a Committee constituted at the District, Directorate, and State levels for the grant of National Award to teachers. The State argued that the Indira Gandhi NSS Award was granted under a separate scheme with separate eligibility conditions, and was therefore not covered by the Government notifications.

The Division Bench examined the text of the notification and found it to be “widely worded” and placing awardees at two different pedestals based on whether they had received national or State-level awards. The bench then turned to the nature of the Indira Gandhi NSS Award itself.

How the Bench Reasoned

The Division Bench examined the guidelines for the Indira Gandhi NSS Award on record. Those guidelines showed that the selection at the national level was headed by the Secretary (Youth Affairs) and included the Secretary of the University Grants Commission, the Joint Secretary (Youth Affairs), the Programme Adviser (NSS), the Secretary of the Association of Indian Universities, and two non-official members of eminence. The National Selection Committee was empowered to scrutinise recommendations from State Governments and Union Territory Administrators and to select awardees, and could even consider units not recommended by a State or UT Government on merits.

The bench noted that the NSS activities are part of community service rendered by NSS volunteers, and that the scheme itself contemplated suitable incentives and awards for such service. Daleep Kumar had been recommended through this national selection process and the award was conferred by the President of India. The bench observed that the State could not “wash its hands off for the achievement of its own employee.”

The Single Judge had relied on two Supreme Court decisions: Union of India and Others v. K.V. Jankiraman and Others (1991) 4 SCC 109 and State of Kerala and Others v. E.K. Bhaskaran Pillai (2007) 6 SCC 524, for the proposition that if an employee was kept away from a benefit on account of State action, he would be entitled to the monetary equivalent of that benefit. The Division Bench did not disturb this reliance.

The bench found that the notification's language covered the petitioner's case, that the award was a national award conferred by the President through a nationally constituted committee, and that the State's attempt to characterise it as falling under a separate scheme did not hold up against the text of the notification or the facts on record. The view taken by the Single Judge was held to suffer from no infirmity warranting interference in a Letters Patent Appeal.

Outcome

The Division Bench dismissed LPA No.190 of 2026. All pending miscellaneous applications in the matter were also disposed of. The Single Judge's direction to pay Daleep Kumar the emoluments for the period from 1 June 2023 to 31 May 2025, after adjusting the pension paid for that period, stands.