IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH Civil Writ Petition No.1438 of 2007 (O&M) Date of Decision: 29.09.2010 Devi Dayal Bajaj and others ........Petitioners Versus State of Haryana and others .......Respondents CORAM:- HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE PERMOD KOHLI Present: Mr. Umesh Narang, Advocate for the petitioners. Mr. R.D.Sharma, Deputy Advocate General, Haryana for respondent No.1. Mr. Mohnish Sharma, Advocate for Mr. Narender Hooda, Advocate for respondents No.2 to 4. ****** PERMOD KOHLI, J. (ORAL) The petitioners in the present case initially joined Electricity department of Haryana on Group 'D' post and later promoted to Group 'C' as Junior Engineers on the basis of their seniority-cum-merit. The Haryana Government revised the pay scales of its employees with effect from 01.01.1996, vide the Haryana Civil Services (Revised Pay) Rules, 1998. The Government also notified Haryana Civil Services (Assured Career Progression) Rules, 1998 known as “ACP Rules”. Under the later rules, every government employee after regular satisfactory service of 10 and 20 years is entitled to 1st and 2nd ACP scales respectively subject to the condition that such employee has not got any financial upgradation during such period in accordance with the rules. The grievance of the petitioners is that they have not been granted 1st and 2nd ACP benefits even though they are eligible for such financial upgradation under the ACP Rules on completion of 10 and 20 Civil Writ Petition No.1438 of 2007 (O&M) -2- years of their regular satisfactory service. As regard Junior Engineers in the Electricity department are concerned, their pay scales as notified by the Government, both under the revised pay rules and the ACP Rules are as under:- Old Pay Scale New Pay Scale 1.1.1986 1.1.1996 Time Scale 1640-2900 6000-9500 1st HSS 6500-9900 (1st ACP Grade after 10 years service) 2nd HSS 6500-10500 (2nd ACP Grade after 20 years service) The claim of the petitioners for benefit of ACP scales has not been considered. The present petition has filed seeking a direction to release the ACP grades to the petitioners on completion of their 10 and 20 years service. The State Government denied the benefit of ACP to promotees on the ground that the ACP benefits is meant only for direct recruits who do not get any financial upgradation within the prescribed period. A number of petitions came to be filed before this Court. A Division Bench of this Court in Suraj Bhan and others Versus State of Haryana, 2001(1) R.S.J. 205 and Jagmal Singh etc. Versus State of Haryana, 2002(2) R.S.J. 401 allowed the writ petitions and granted the relief to the promotee government employees. Judgment in Suraj Bhan's case (supra) was challenged before the Hon'ble Supreme Court. Some other Special Leave Petitions were also filed on the same issue. Hon'ble Supreme Court in S.L.P. (Civil) No.20264 of 2004 decided on 02.08.2006 in case of Commissioner and Secretary to Government of Haryana and others Versus Ram Sarup Ganda and others disposed of the Special Leave Civil Writ Petition No.1438 of 2007 (O&M) -3- Petitions with the following observations:- “By the impugned judgment, the High Court has held that the respondents are entitled to get the ACP scales that are applicable to Group “C” post, but the Rules, as such, do not provide for that. The Rules say that if there are already two upgradations, then the concerned employees are not entitled to the benefit of ACP scales. Nevertheless, if ACP scales are higher, they are certainly entitled to the ACP scales at the starting point. The date of giving such ACP scales is the date of entry into the service and though these respondents are entitled to get ACP scales and get fixation of the ACP scales as applicable to Group “D” employees and in case there are anomalies to the effect that they receive lesser pay than their juniors working in the same cadre/post, such senior Government servants are entitled to step up of their salary to get it on par with the salary which is being received by their juniors. In the result, all the appeals are partly allowed. The appellants shall revise the pay scales of the respondents. In case of any anomaly, if the employees who, on fixation of ACP scales, are in receipt of lesser salary than their juniors in the same cadre/post, then their salary shall be stepped up accordingly. Revised orders shall be passed within a period of two months of the receipt of the copy of this Order by the Government. However, if upon revision of the pay-scales, any employee is liable to refund any amount, the Government shall not insist on refund of such amount. If any employee is entitled to get any amount by way of pay revision, the said amount shall be made available to him within a period of six months from the date of receipt of copy of this order by the Government. Consequently, the Appeals are partly allowed with no order as to costs. Sd/- (K.G.BALAKRISHNAN) J. SD/- (D.K.JAIN) J. A similar question also came before the Division Bench of this Court in Ramesh Dahiya Versus Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam Civil Writ Petition No.1438 of 2007 (O&M) -4- Limited, 2008(2) S.C.T. 624. The petitioner's case is fully covered by the aforesaid judgments. Hon'ble Division Bench issued following directions:- “For the aforesaid reasons, this writ petition is allowed, the impugned order dated October 20, 2004 (Annexure P-2) is set aside and the Nigam is directed to fix the pay of the petitioner in 1st and 2nd A.C.P. scale by counting his service of 10 and 20 years with effect from April 13, 1983, when he was promoted to the post of Draftsman. The petitioner will be entitled to all the consequential benefits flowing from such fixation of his pay. There shall be no order as to costs. Petition allowed”. The petitioners are also entitled to relief in the same manner. This petition is accordingly allowed in terms of the aforesaid directions. 29.09.2010 (PERMOD KOHLI) Gagan JUDGE