IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH Civil Writ Petition No. 3152 of 1989 Date of decision: 22nd December, 2008 Bharat Electronics Panchkula Employees Union (Regd.) and another … Petitioners Versus Union of India and others … Respondents CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE KANWALJIT SINGH AHLUWALIA Present: Mr. I.D. Singla, Advocate for the petitioners. Mr. Harbhagwan Singh, Senior Advocate with Mr. Amit K. Singh, Advocate for respondent No.2 and 3. KANWALJIT SINGH AHLUWALIA, J. (ORAL) Case of the petitioners is that executive and non-executive functionaries of the company at Bangalore are being paid house rent allowance @ 25 percent. Counsel further states that at Ghaziabad, executive officials and non-executive officials are being paid @ 30 percent. Counsel state that a discrimination has occurred between the executive and non-executive officials at Panchkula, as executive officials are being paid @ 20 percent and non-executive officials at Panchkula are being paid @ 15 percent. Grievance of the petitioners is that like Bangalore and Ghaziabad, petitioners ought to have been paid same percentage of the house rent allowance, as is being paid to executive and non-executive officials at Bangalore and Ghaziabad. I do not find any merit in this contention. Availability of housing is a question of fact in each locality. In one city, accommodation for high income group, middle income group and lower income group may be scare Civil Writ Petition No.3152 of 1989 and equal rate may be applicable. In another town, high income group residential accommodation may be in scarcity and lower income group and middle income group accommodation may be available in plenty. Therefore, these are the decisions, which are to be taken by the employer taking into consideration ground realities of each city and locality. Therefore, a reasonable classification has been made, which cannot be held arbitrary. Hence, no interference is warranted by this Court in the present writ petition and the same is dismissed. [KANWALJIT SINGH AHLUWALIA] JUDGE December 22, 2008 rps 2