Shah Samir Bharatbhai vs State of Gujarat 2025 INSC 1026 - Teachers

Teachers - We have a serious concern about the way we treat our teachers. They educate our future generations, enable them to acquire the necessary qualifications and expertise - Academicians, lecturers and professors are the intellectual backbone of any nation, as they dedicate their lives to shaping the minds and character of future generations. Their work goes far beyond delivering lessons—it involves mentoring, guiding research, nurturing critical thinking, and instilling values that contribute to the progress of society. However, in many contexts, the compensation and recognition extended to them do not truly reflect the significance of their contribution. When educators are not treated with dignity or offered respectable emoluments, it diminishes the value a country places on knowledge and undermines the motivation of those entrusted with building its intellectual capital. By ensuring fair remuneration and dignified treatment, we affirm the importance of their role and reinforce the nation’s commitment to quality education, innovation, and a brighter future for its youth - It is just not enough to keep reciting gurubramha gururvishnu gurdevo maheshwarah at public functions. If we believe in this declaration, it must be reflected in the way the nation treats its teachers..[Context: Supreme Court disposed group of appeals concerning the pay parity of Assistant Professors in Gujarat’s government engineering and polytechnic colleges - The Court applied the principle of “equal pay for equal work,” dismissing the State’s appeals and allowing those of the contractually appointed Assistant Professors..]