C.W.P. No.9103 of 2008 -1- IN THE HIGH COURT FOR THE STATES OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH C.W.P. No.9103 of 2008 Date of Decision.25.03.2010 Kuldeep Kumar and others ........Petitioners Versus State of Punjab through Secretary, Local Government Department, Punjab Civil Secretariat, Chandigarh and another ....Respondents Present: Mr. H.P.S. Rahi, Advocate for the petitioners. Mr. Anil Kumar Sharma, Addl. A.G., Punjab for respondent No.1. Mr. Sandeep Khungar, Advocate for respondent No.2. CORAM:HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE K. KANNAN 1. Whether Reporters of local papers may be allowed to see the judgment ? No 2. To be referred to the Reporters or not ? No 3. Whether the judgment should be reported in the Digest? Yes -.- K. KANNAN J.(ORAL) 1. The petitioner seeks for a direction to the respondent to grant salary at the DC rates on the basis of a communication from the Deputy Controller, Finance and Accounts, Municipal Corporation that all the contractual employees in Municipal Corporation, Amritsar shall be given payment according to the DC rates. The complaint of the petitioners is that the petitioners, who are Street Light Patrollers are alone discriminated from all other classes of persons to whom DC rates have been applied. While they are being paid the rates, which were originally fixed in the year 2000, the DC C.W.P. No.9103 of 2008 -2- rates of the Government have not been adhered to. 2. On 28.01.2010, this Court had directed the State to give better particulars by means of an affidavit as to the application of DC rates to various classes of persons and particularly with reference to the manner of treatment of Street Light Patrollers in other Districts in the State of Punjab. The idea was to elicit whether the petitioners being the contractual workers in Amritsar Corporation alone are being discriminated while the counterparts elsewhere in other districts of the State were being provided with DC rates. The affidavit has now been filed through Kavita Singh, Additional Secretary, Department of Local Government, Punjab to the effect that the service of Street Light Patroller is class IV in Punjab Municipal Employees (Class IV) Service Rules, 1986 which are applicable in all Municipal Councils, Nagar Panchayats and the Municipal Corporation in the State of Punjab. The service of Street Light Patrollers is a non Provincilized Cadre Service and the concerned Urban Local Body is the competent authority to take decision pertaining to their wages. It is brought out through the affidavit that only Municipal Corporation, Amritsar has employed Street Light Patrollers on contract basis and no other Urban Local Bodies have employed such class of persons. It is further stated that the Municipal Corporation Amritsar is paying the Street Light Patrollers @ Rs.3500/- while the current rate of Class IV employees as per DC rates is Rs.3398. This shows that the contractual payments have been even higher than DC rates applicable for class IV employees. C.W.P. No.9103 of 2008 -3- 3. The schedule prescribed for various categories of employees by the Deputy Commissioner does not include the categories such like Street Light Patrollers and therefore, to mandate the Government to apply the DC rates is not possible. Even otherwise when the petitioners have been obtaining a rate, which is higher than the DC rates prescribed for class IV employees although the category is not specifically included amongst the list of beneficiaries of DC rates, no purpose will be served by acceding to the request of the petitioners. 4. The writ petition is, therefore, dismissed. There shall be, however, no direction as to costs. (K. KANNAN) JUDGE March 25, 2010 Pankaj*