Dear Friends The Interim Order dated 16-Dec-2011 passed by the Hon'ble Karnataka High Court in relation to the

retrospective operation of the Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972 with respect to the teaching staff is attached. I represent KUSMA, an organisation now of more than 1600 active schools in the State of Karnataka. As many associations had filed similar petitions, all of those petitions were clubbed and heard together. On 08Dec-2011, the High Court was satisfied that an interim stay was warranted and so, issued a one line Order stating - Interim Order granted, as prayed for. Thereafter, difficulties arose. In some petitions, interim stay was sought with respect to both the teaching as well as non-teaching staff. Specifically, KUSMA had not sought any relief with respect to non teaching staff. But some others had. So, a separate application by others was moved before the Court for clarification and modification. In the process, the Court has expressed in detail on 16-Dec-2011, the scope of its interim Order dated 08-Dec-2011. The KUSMA Writ Petition is Writ Petition No.14083 of 2011 and you will find the cause title in page 2. This interim Order should help you to ask for similar Orders in other High Courts provided, you can also inform those Courts that the grounds that you have urged are similar to what was urged here to persuade the Karnataka High Court to grant the said interim Order. Is it so? Further, I note with concern, the fact that the Delhi High Court has dismissed, by a judgment and Order, the Writ Petition filed by Independent Schools Federation on 02-Dec-2011. I am very sure that the Independent Schools Federation put up their best effort and they must have been quite disappointed with what happened at the Delhi High Court. So, it is entirely possible that a copy of that judgment could be produced by the Central Government in your own case before your High Court. In such an event, you can be rest assured that your High Court will have to choose between the interim Order of a High Court and a final judgment of another High Court. There are no prizes for guessing that your High Court will have to accord greater weight to the final judgment and reject your prayer for interim relief. Still, after having gone through the judgment of the Delhi High Court, I can tell you that none of the substantial arguments made by us in the KUSMA petition at the Karnataka High Court have been addressed in that judgment. As such, that judgment simply cannot defeat any of the arguments that are currently being made at the Karnataka High Court and I am therefore, fully confident that the Delhi High Court judgment holds no prejudicial value to KUSMA's proceeding here. I would also like to suggest this much - another school association at Delhi should consider filing a fresh Writ Petition right away with the grounds urged by us here in Karnataka. And I can state here with reasonable certainty that the High Court will most likely choose to hear that association and even if it were to choose not to, that association would have laid the foundation to make a strong appeal to the Supreme Court. Of course, I have complete faith in the lawyers for the Independent Schools Federation and that they will be able to mount an effective appeal at the Supreme Court. Still, nothing would be lost if a fresh attempt on grounds that have not been addressed in the Delhi HC judgment is made again. I am not saying that all grounds urged by Independent Schools Federation have been dealt with by the Delhi High Court. It is entirely possible that several of their grounds have not been dealt with at all by the Delhi High Court. Also, I would like to suggest that fresh Writ Petitions urging the grounds that our petition has urged here be filed in other High Courts and be tagged with existing petitions. I can tell you this much - you will need a strong foundation to mount an appeal in the Supreme Court should you lose at the High Court and you will have to incorporate all the needed grounds right at the High Court itself.

-Regards,

K.V.DHANANJAY Advocate, Supreme Court of India +91 99105 77765 +91 99029 09390