Civil Writ Petition No. 15298 of 1993 -1- IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH Civil Writ Petition No. 15298 of 1993 Date of decision: February 8, 2011 Manohar Lal Sharma & others ...Petitioners Versus The State of Haryana & another. ...Respondents CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE RANJIT SINGH Present: Mr. Anshul Gupta, Advocate, for Mr. Rajiv Atma Ram, Senior Advocate, for the petitioners. Ms. Shruti Jain, AAG, Haryana, for the State. Mr. Dheeraj Chawla, Advocate, for respondent No.2. **** RANJIT SINGH J. This order will dispose of two writ petition bearing Nos.15298 and 3405 of 1993. The facts have been taken from C.W.P. No. 15298 of 1993. The petitioners, who are the employees of Haryana State Industrial Development Corporation Limited [earlier known as HSIDC, is now incorporated as Haryana State Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (for short HSIIDC)], have filed this writ petition for seeking quashing of the order dated 25.1.1993 (Annexure P-7) and Resolution of the Board dated 1.2.1993 (Annexure P-8) and for issuing direction to the respondents to grant identical revised pay scale to the petitioners as given to other counterpart in Civil Engineering Division and also for grant of other reliefs. The respondent-Corporation is wholly Government owned company. The corporation was declared second State level Financial Civil Writ Petition No. 15298 of 1993 -2- Institution and it started its activities such as for lending, when the Finance Division of the Corporation was created. With the said creation, different posts with different designations like Manager, Senior Manager, Assistant Manager etc. were created in the Finance Division. These posts carried higher pay scale than that of Civil Engineers. It is stated that the post of Manger in the Finance Division was placed in the higher pay scale than that of Sub Divisional Engineer and the Senior Manger was in the higher pay scale than that of the Executive Engineer and the Deputy General Manager was in the higher pay scale than that of the Superintending Engineers. Since the Managers working in the Civil Engineering Division were given a pay scale lower than that of their counter parts in Finance Division and other allied divisions of the Corporation, the Corporation decided to re-designate the Civil Engineering staff in the year 1980 and re-designated Junior Engineer, Sub Divisional Engineer and Executive Engineer as Assistant Manager, Managers, Senior Manager respectively to bring them at par with the employees working in the other division of the Corporation. They were, accordingly, given the same pay-scale as was given to Assistant Manager, Manager and Senior Manager. The change of designation and bringing them at par in the pay scale, was after considerable deliberation in the Corporation in consonance with the principal of equal pay for equal work so as to avoid discontentment in the working in the Civil Engineering Division. The Corporation had otherwise also been following the Government pay scale and allowances. The benefit of the pay Civil Writ Petition No. 15298 of 1993 -3- revision by the Government was not given to the Civil Engineers after the year 1980. The Civil Engineers started representing for the same pay scale as given by the State Government in their Civil Engineering staff working in the P.W.D. Department. Upto year 1986, the revised pay scales were not granted to the Civil Engineers. They, accordingly, had approached this Court by way of Civil Writ Petition No.5271 of 1986 claiming the same pay scales as were being given by the State Government to similarly placed Engineering staff in P.W.D. Department be allowed to them. The Corporation while appearing before the Court admitted that it was having common pay scale in respect of all the Managers working in its various divisions and there was no discrimination inter se with them. The Board vide its decision dated 4.10.1983 had agreed to grant revised pay scales to the Mangers etc. working in the Engineering Division of the Corporation at par with the State Government employees for their Civil Engineers. This decision was, however, not implemented. This Court ultimately held the Corporation had erroneously been waiting for decision of the State Government. The Court also observed that once the Board of Directors had taken a decision to grant revised pay scales to the Manager, Senior Manager etc. in the Engineering cell, there was no impediment in the Corporation for implementing the decision. The writ petition was, accordingly, allowed directing the Corporation to decide the matter regarding implementation of the Board Resolution dated 4.10.1983 for grant of revised pay-scales to Manager and Senior Manger etc. without waiting the decision from the State Government. Civil Writ Petition No. 15298 of 1993 -4- The petitioners, accordingly, have now approached asking for relief on the ground of parity as the Engineers working in the Board were equated with them and were re-designated as such. The submission is that the Board need not to wait the decision from the State Government and itself is competent to remove the anomaly and grant the pay scale. It is conceded that there is a need of parity of the pay scales of various employees as was done earlier. Learned counsel for the respondent-Corporation has drawn my attention to order (Annexure P-2) passed by this Court in C.W.P. No.5271 of 1986, (Surjit singh Ahuja & others Versus Haryana State Industrial Development Corporation Limited), decided on 26.7.1991. After making reference to Article 95 of the Articles of Association, this Court has held that Board is competent to revise the pay scale of its employees. Counsel for the Corporation submits that this decision Annexure P-2 was not put to any challenge and thus, has acquired finality. That being the legal position, the present writ petitions certainly can be disposed of with the direction that the Board may at its own level consider granting the pay scale as demanded by the petitioners, if it is otherwise due to them in accordance with law. It is pointed out by the counsel for the petitioners that Board has already recommended the revision of pay scales vide Annexures P-10 & 11. Once it is held that the Board is competent to take the decision, no question would arise for waiting for outcome of the recommendation made to the State Government. The Board is competent to take a decision in regard to revision of pay scales. Both the writ petitions are, Civil Writ Petition No. 15298 of 1993 -5- accordingly, disposed of. The necessary action be completed within a period of three months from the date of receipt of certified copy of this order. February 8, 2011 ( RANJIT SINGH ) monika JUDGE