IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB & HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH Civil Writ Petition No.2743 of 2011 Date of Decision : February 15, 2011. Mukhtiar Singh .....Petitioner versus Punjab State Power Corporation Ltd. & others .....Respondents CORAM : HON'BLE MR.JUSTICE SURYA KANT. Present : Mr.Sharwan Sehgal, Advocate, for the petitioner. -.- 1. Whether Reporters of Local papers may be allowed to see the judgment? 2. To be referred to the Reporters or not? 3. Whether the judgment should be reported in the Digest? --- Surya Kant, J. (Oral) The petitioner seeks a direction to the official respondents to step up his pay and bring it at par with his juniors, namely, respondent Nos.6 to 9. As per the averments made in the writ petition, the juniors to the petitioner are drawing higher pay which amounts to 'anomaly' in his pay. The petitioner is said to have served the respondents with a legal notice dated 28.10.2010 (Annexure P-2) for removal of the said anomaly which has been replied by the Additional Superintending Engineer (OP) of the respondent-Corporation on 3rd December, 2010 (Annexure P-3) justifying the higher basic pay of respondent Nos.6 to 9 on the plea that they were directly recruited. C.W.P.No .2743 of 2011 2 The petitioner, on the other hand, contends that he was promoted as Lineman much before the recruitment of respondent Nos.6 to 9 and his academic/technical qualifications are not less than these respondents. The petitioner also contends that once he and the private respondents are similarly placed and he is senior to them, the 'source of recruitment' is wholly irrelevant for the purpose of pay parity. The petitioner urges that the 'birth mark' does not constitute a reasonable classification within the meaning of Articles 14 & 16 of the Constitution of India. Having heard learned counsel for the petitioner and considering the above noticed factual and legal contentions, I am of the considered opinion that the matter requires consideration by the higher authorities as the Additional Superintending Engineer (OP) may not be the competent authority to grant the pay parity and/or to remove an anomaly in the pay scales. The writ petition is accordingly disposed of with a direction to the Chief Engineer (Central) as well as the Managing Director of the respondent-Corporation to consider and dispose of the above mentioned claim of the petitioner within a period of three months from the date of receiving a certified copy of this order. Dasti. February 15, 2011 (SURYA KANT) Mohinder JUDGE