IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH CWP No.4980 of 2009 Date of Decision: 19.08.2010 Satish Kumar ........Petitioner Versus The Haryana State Federation of Consumers Cooperative Wholesale Stores Ltd. and others. .......Respondents CORAM:- HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE PERMOD KOHLI Present: Mr. R.B.Malik, Senior Advocate with Mr. Nikhil Sharma, Advocate for the petitioner. Mr. Vinod Gupta, Advocate for respondent No.1. Mr. R.S.Kundu, Addl. A.G., Haryana for respondents No.2 & 3. ****** PERMOD KOHLI, J.(Oral) Petitioner was appointed as Accountant and joined the same on 28.10.1975. The service conditions of the employee of the federation were governed by rules namely “Staff Service Rules of Haryana Staff Federation of Consumer's Cooperative Wholesale Stores Ltd.” Under the rules, the Accountant's post is a feeding post for promotion to the post of Assistant Accounts Officer. As a matter of fact, the post of Assistant Accounts Officer is only a promotional post and no direct recruitment is provided against this post. Pay scales for the post of Accountant and Assistant Accounts Officer were notified from time to time. Prior to 01.07.1983, the pay scale of the post of Accountant was Rs.250-500 and at the same time for the post of Asstt. Accounts Officer was Rs.350-700. Petitioner was promoted as Assistant Accounts Officer on 05.06.1981 (Annexure P-1). Pay scales were revised on 01.07.1983, 01.12.1989 and 01.01.1996. In all these revisions, CWP No.4980 of 2009 -2- the pay scales for the post of Assistant Accounts Officer were higher than the Accountant. The details of the pay scales in each revision is indicated hereunder:- Date of revision Pay Scales of Pay scale of the pay scales Accountant of Asstt. Accounts Officer ............................................................................................... Prior to 01.07.1983. 250-500 350-700 w.e.f. 01.07.1983 600-100 700-1250 w.e.f. 01.12.1989 1400-2600 1640-2900 w.e.f. 01.01.1996 5000-7850 5500-9000 ............................................................................................... The pay scales of the feeding cadre of Accountant was again revised w.e.f. 03.03.2006 retrospectively, the revised pay scales are as under:- Date of revision Pay Scales of Pay scale of the pay scales Accountant of Asstt. Accounts Officer ............................................................................................... Before 01.07.1983 250-500 350-700 w.e.f. 01.07.1983 700-1250 700-1250 w.e.f. 01.12.1989 1640-2900 1640-2900 w.e.f. 01.05.1990 2000-3200 1640-2900 w.e.f. 28.09.1995 2000-3500 1640-2900 w.e.f.01.01.1996 6500-9900 5500-9000 ................................................................................................. From the above, it appears that anomalies has been created by the aforesaid revision right from 01.07.1983 when the pay scales of both feeding and promotional posts were brought at par. Same position continue in the pay report of 01.12.1989. The position became verse on pay revision w.e.f. 01.05.1990, 28.09.1995 and 01.01.1996. CWP No.4980 of 2009 -3- The petitioner earlier approached this Court, vide C.W.P. No.8637 of 2006, which came to be disposed of, vide order dated 13.09.2007. Statement was made before the Court that case of the petitioner has been put up before the Board of Directors and a decision will be taken by the Board accordingly. On that statement, the writ petition was disposed of. Respondents, however, did not consider the agenda item and dropped the same in the meeting held by the Board of Directors on 04.06.2008 as is evident from Annexure P-8. It is under these circumstances, the petitioner has come to this Court in the present writ petition. Admittedly, the post of Accountant is a feeding post to the post of Assistant Accounts Officer. Petitioner is provisionally holding the promotional post but in the lower pay scale. It is settled preposition of law that such a discrepancy i.e. equal or lower pay scale of the promotional post with the feeding post is violative of Articles 14 & 16 of the Constitution of India. The issue is no more res-intergra having been considered by a Bench of this Court in 1995(1) SLR, 215 titled as Sunder Lal Jain Versus State of Haryana, wherein following observations are made:- “It is totally unreasonable to place a junior post and higher post in the same pay scale. A Division Bench of this Court in Har Kishan & Anr. Vs. State of Punjab & Anr. 1987 (5) SLR, 539 held that “when a lower post is equated with regard to pay scale with the promotional post, it was a clear anomaly and was highly irrational.” Another Division Bench of this Court in P.L.Goyl Vs. State of Haryana & Ors. 1990(5) SLR, 108, held that “reducing the pay scale on promotion would be violative of Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution of India.” In Civil Writ Petition 10534 of 1991 (Mani Ram & Ors. v. State of Haryana & Ors.) decided by me on September CWP No.4980 of 2009 -4- 20,1993, it was held that “it was legitimate aspiration of every citizen to be better placed, both, in status and pay on promotion and if this is to be frustrated, it will obviously damper the growth of the man which is an natural desire of everyone.” If there is no increase in the emoluments of a citizen on his promotion, no one would ever work with zeal and dedication nor would be ever like to acquire better experience and more qualifications. This would result into complete stagnation. The action of the respondents in equating the promotional posts with that of inferior posts in the matter of pay scale would obviously result in restricting the natural aspiration of human being to go higher and higher in his service graph and would, thus, be wholly arbitrary. A direction is, thus, issued to forthwith fix the pay of petitioners in the scale immediately higher than the one they were getting on a lower post from which they were promoted. This Court is of the considered view that the authorities responsible for fixing the pay scales of petitioners should immediately get down and see through that the justice is done to the petitioners by fixing them in a pay scale commensurate to their nature of duties and post. This exercise must be done within six months from today. However, petitioners be paid forthwith all the arrears that might be due to them by fixing them in a pay scale immediately higher to that they were getting on the post from which they were promoted. This petition deserves to be allowed with costs quantified at Rs.3,000/-.” In view of the above legal position, this petition is disposed of with a direction to the respondents to re-determine the pay scales of the CWP No.4980 of 2009 -5- promotional post commensurate to the status of the post and fixed the pay scale higher than the feeding channel with effect from 01.07.1983 when the anomaly was created by pay revision of 30.03.2006. Let the entire exercise be completed within a period of four months from the date of receipt of a certified copy of this order. 19.08.2010 (PERMOD KOHLI) Gagan JUDGE