Justice Anuroop Singhi of the Rajasthan High Court has enhanced compensation payable to a Hindi teacher, illegally terminated in 2015 after roughly 20 years of unblemished service on the ground that there were no students for Hindi, from Rs. 1 lakh to Rs. 20 lakh.
The Rajasthan Non-Government Educational Institutions Tribunal had found the termination bad in law but, since the teacher had since reached superannuation, awarded only Rs. 1 lakh in lieu of reinstatement. The High Court called that amount 'shockingly disproportionate' given her permanent status, clean service record, and the more than 67 months she remained without employment before superannuation, directing payment of Rs. 20 lakh within two months.
The ruling signals that Rajasthan courts are prepared to substantially scale up lump-sum compensation in lieu of reinstatement for long-serving private-school and institutional employees found to be illegally terminated, materially raising the litigation exposure for educational trusts and other non-government institutional employers facing wrongful termination claims.