The Supreme Court has pulled up the Uttar Pradesh Government for subjecting the state’s primary school teachers/instructors to a form of ‘begar’ by paying them a fixed honorarium of Rs 7,000 a month for over a decade.A Bench of Justice Pankaj Mithal and Justice Prasanna B Varale directed the UP Government to pay an honorarium of Rs 17,000 per month to all such teachers from 2017-18, and to clear their arrears within six months.“The honorarium payable to these instructors/teachers cannot be permitted to remain stagnant and the same is revisable periodically at least once in three years by the PAB (Project Approval Board) or any other authority as may be determined by the Central Government/State Government under the scheme or the modified scheme,” it said in its February 4 verdict.Allowing appeals filed by teachers and their welfare association, the top court held that the part time contractual instructors/teachers appointed in the Upper Primary School in the State of UP were entitled to revision of their honorarium.“Any action of the State/Union Government to employ instructors/teachers on a fixed honorarium of Rs 7,000 per month as was initially fixed in 2013-14 amounts to ‘begar’ and unfair practice which is violative of Article 23 of the Constitution,” the top court said.“Thus, all these instructors/teachers are entitled to receive honorarium at the rate of Rs 17,000 per month with effect from 2017-18. The State Government shall start paying honorarium to them at the rate of Rs 17,000 per month 46 w.e.f. 01.04.2026 and the arrears of which shall be paid to them by the State Government within a period of six months from today,” the Bench said.“The State Government may recover the contribution of the Central Government from the Union of India,” it added.“The PAB having fixed honorarium to these instructors/teachers at the rate of Rs 17,000 per month with effect from the year 2017-18, the State Government/Central Government is not justified in paying them at a lesser rate of either Rs 8,470 or Rs 9,800 or at the basic rate of Rs 7,000 per month, the Bench said.“Education, that too good education at least up to the primary level based upon values and morals, is fundamental to the progress of the nation. Accepting the above fundamental principle, the Constitution (Eighty-Sixth Amendment Act), 2002 vide Section 2, inserted Article 21A in the Constitution of India with effect from 01.04.2010 recognizing Right to Education to all children between the age of 6-14 years,” it noted.