IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA CWJC No.1745 of 2007 Krishna Nand Jha, Son of Late Jageshwar Jha, resident of Village Gosain Gaon, Police Station Gopaipur, District Bhagalpur. ------- Petitioner Versus 1. The Tilka Manjhi Bhagalpur University, Bhagalpur, through its Vice Chancellor. 2. The Registrar, The Tilka Manjhi Bhagalpur University, Bhagalpur. 3. The Finance Officer, The Tilka Manjhi Bhagalpur University, Bhagalpur. 4. The Secretary to the Government, Department of Finance, Government of Bihar, Patna. 5. The Secretary to the Government, Department of Higher Education, Government of Bihar, Patna. 6. The Principal, G.B. College, Naugachhia, Bhagalpur. --------- Respondents ----------- 2 09.08.2010 Heard Mr. Rajeeva Roy, learned counsel for the petitioner and Mr. Ashok Kumar Keshari, learned counsel for the Bhagalpur University as also counsel for the State. The prayer of the petitioner in this writ application reads as follows:- “1(I) For holding that since the petitioner was initially appointed on the sanctioned and vacant post of Laboratory in-charge on the pay scale of Rs. 730-1080 which subsequently, by order of the State Government, was raised to Rs. 785-1210/-, the inferior scale of Rs. 680- 965/- cannot be shown to be admissible to him and accordingly he cannot be 2 fitted in the scale revised from that inferior scale. II. For holding that the authorities of the University had rightly applied the revised scale of Rs. 1500- 2750/- which is the correspondingly revised scale of old scale of Rs. 785-1210 in terms of IVth PRC report and fitted him in the said scale. III. For commanding the respondents to fit the petitioner in the revised scale of Rs. 1500- 2750/- from the date the IVth Pay Revision was implemented in the University and in all other corresponding revised pay scale. IV. For commanding the respondents to accord the petitioner the benefit of First time Bound Promotion which was granted to him w.e.f. 21.9.1991 but subsequently withdrawn, and fit him into the pay scale of Rs. 1640-2900/- w.e.f. that day and grant him all the consequential benefits including fitment into the corresponding revised scales which he would get on implementation of Vth pay revision. V. For commanding the respondents to pay the petitioner the 3 arrears of difference of salary which he has been denied on account of wrong fitment in the revised scales and all other benefits which he would be entitled.” Mr. Roy, with reference to the aforementioned prayer, would submit that when the petitioner’s appointment was made on the post of Laboratory in-charge in Bhagalpur University way back in the year 1981 and he also getting the pay-scale of Rs. 730-1080/- as well as Rs. 785-1210/-, his replacement pay-scale in the year 1991 ought to have been 1640-2900/- whereas he was given the pay- scale of Rs. 1500-2750/-, which was actually the replacement pay-scale of the lower pay scale of Rs. 680-965/-. In this regard, Mr. Roy would submit that the petitioner’s pay from 1991 has been wrongly fixed which if revised would lead to correct pay fixation of the petitioner if the petitioner is given the pay-scale of Rs. 1640-2900/- with effect from 1991. Mr. Keshari, learned counsel for the University, has not filed any counter affidavit in this case. He has however 4 referred to the representation filed by the petitioner (Annexure-9’A’) from which he would draw a simple conclusion that the petitioner is raising a stale claim of the year 1991 and that too without assailing the order of the State Government, wherein, the revised pay-scale of the earlier pay of Rs. 785-1210/- was shown to be Rs. 1500-2750/-. Mr. Keshari would thus submit that the University is bound by the Government notification and its pay fixation has to be made strictly in accordance with the pay- scale sanctioned by the Government. He would, therefore, also submit that the University could not have done any thing in this regard but, in any event, this Court should not now allow such a stale claim of the year 1991 which has been raised by the petitioner for the first time in this writ application filed on 9.2.2007. In the opinion of this Court, there are two elements in the pay fixation. One is the arrears and the other is current salary. The petitioner’s challenge to the Government notification of the year 1991, having been 5 not made at an appropriate point of time, the petitioner cannot now be allowed to reopen the whole issue for his fixation of pay from the year 1991 for the purpose of getting arrears of salary, but if the petitioner can still satisfy the University that persons like him or any junior to him were given the benefit of higher pay fixation or that the petitioner could satisfy the State Government with regard to any anomaly in the grant of pay-scale on the post of Laboratory in-charge in the year 1991, probably he may become entitled for revision of his pay in the appropriate scale, which has now been changed in the year 1996 as also in the year 2006. Such exercise, therefore, can be only gone into only if the petitioner gives up claims for arrear of salary for the period 1991 to the date of filing of this writ application inasmuch such stale claim for arrears to pay fixation made in 1991 is clearly inadmissible being hit by the doctrine delay and laches and fatal for maintaining a writ petition. Mr. Roy would therefore readily accept that if the State Government accepts 6 the claim of the petitioner that there was an error or anomaly in the pay-fixation of the post of Laboratory in-charge in the year 1991 and restore the pay-scale of Rs. 1640-2900/- to the petitioner with effect from 1991 with consequential changes by way notional pay fixation in the next two pay revisions of the year 1996 and 2006 respectively, the petitioner will not claim any arrear of salary up to the date of filing of this writ application i.e. 9.2.2007. In the light of the aforementioned clear undertaking given by the learned counsel for the petitioner, this Court would direct the State Government to consider the grievance of the petitioner with regard to the admissibility of his pay-scale of Rs. 1640-2900/- as in the year 1991 and if the State Government finds that the petitioner and the others Laboratory in-charge as well were given wrong pay-scale of Rs.1500-2750/- in place of 1600-2900, it would pass appropriate order, whereafter, the pay scale of the petitioner would be corrected and the petitioner will be paid his current revised 7 salary from the March 2007 with other consequential benefits in the revised pay- scale treating the pay of the petitioner to be in the pay scale of Rs. 1640-2900/- in the year 1991. If the Government decides and communicates its decision to the University with regard to the revision of the pay-scale of the petitioner, the University will comply the same by making necessary pay fixation and paying the amount within a period of six months from the date of passing of such order by the State Government and release of fund for this purpose. With the aforementioned observation and direction, this application is disposed of. Rsh (Mihir Kumar Jha, J.)