CWP No.9772 of 2010.doc - 1 – HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH **** CWP No.9772 of 2010 (O&M) Date of Decision: 25.05.2010 **** Tara Chand Goyal and others . . . . Petitioners VS. State of Punjab and others . . . . . Respondents **** CORAM : HON’BLE MR.JUSTICE SURYA KANT **** 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? **** Present: Mr. RC Chatrath, Advocate for the petitioners Mr. B.S. Chahal, DAG Punjab ***** SURYA KANT J. (ORAL) (1). Notice of motion. Mr. B.S. Chahal, DAG Punjab, accepts notice on behalf of the respondent-State. (2). The petitioners are serving/retired Teacher/Masters of the Education Department, Government of Punjab. They seek a mandamus to direct the respondents to permit them to re-exercise their option within some reasonable period for the grant of revised pay-scales w.e.f. 01.01.1986 in terms of the notification/Circular dated 24.12.1992. (3). Suffice it to observe that vide the above-stated Circular of the Finance Department on 24th December, 1992, CWP No.9772 of 2010.doc - 2 – the employees were permitted to re-exercise their option within a period of 7 days say by 31st December, 1992 only. (4). Several teachers/employees who could not exercise their fresh options within the short period given to them, approached this Court in a batch of writ petitions including CWP No.18537 of 1995 (Jawahar Lal Verma vs. State of Punjab and others) which were decided by a Division Bench of this Court vide judgement dated 21.03.1996 (Annexure P3), with the following directions:- “Consequently, the writ petitions are disposed of with a direction to the respondents to consider the case of the petitioners for exercise of revised option in terms of the direction given on 211.11.1995 in Civil Writ Petition No.18380 of 1994. We further direct the Government to issue written instructions to all the competent authorities within a period of fifteen days directing them to call upon all similarly situated persons to exercise their revised option for fixation of their pay. All the competent authorities should be directed to decide the case of revised option within a specified time frame of two to three months.” (5). Some more employees approached this Court in CWP No.7643 of 1997 (Narinder Kumar and others vs. State of Punjab and others) which was also allowed by a Division Bench of this Court on 21.07.1998 (Annexure P5), in the following terms:- “Consequently, this petition is allowed in the same terms and the petitioners are allowed to give fresh options of the date within a period of one month w.e.f. which they want revision CWP No.9772 of 2010.doc - 3 – of their pay and if they do give the fresh options, then their pay scales be accordingly revised but the arrears so calculated would be confined to 3 years and two months prior to the filing of the present writ petitions, which was filed on 29.05.1997. If fresh options are given by the petitioners as aforesaid, the respondents will consider the case of the revision of their pay accordingly within a period of six months of the receipt of the options. (6). The matter was also taken to the Hon’ble Supreme Court but the State’s Civil Appeal No.5486 of 2000 has been dismissed on 03.04.2007. (7). The petitioners now seek a direction to the respondents to allow them also to exercise fresh options in terms of the above-mentioned Finance Department Circular dated 24.12.1992. It is urged that the respondents were obligated to issue General Instructions enabling all the employees to re-exercise their options instead of forcing them to approach this Court. (8). Notice of motion was issued and pursuant thereto, learned counsel for the parties have been heard and perused the records. (9). It is a fact that after pay scales were revised by the State of Punjab w.e.f. 01.01.1986 that the Circular dated 24.12.1992 was issued to redress the hardship caused to some of the employees and to enable them to re-exercise their options, namely, “from the date CWP No.9772 of 2010.doc - 4 – they would like to opt for the new pay-scales”. Various orders relied upon by the petitioners, were passed by this Court at the time when there was no further revision in pay-scales w.e.f. 01.01.1996 and again from 01.01.2006. (10). The petitioners’ move at this belated stage appears to be quite calculative as they want to exercise their fresh options retrospectively with certainty of more enrichment in their mind as a result of further re- fixation of their pay firstly w.e.f. 01.01.1996 and then w.e.f. 01.01.2006. True that this Court in Jawahar Lal Verma and Narinder Kumar’s cases (supra) did confer a right upon the petitioners to exercise their fresh options in terms of the Finance Department Circular dated 24.12.1992, the fact that they have come forward at a belated stage and that too without any plausible explanation, has to be kept in view by this Court while exercising its discretionary writ jurisdiction. (11). Consequently, the writ petition is allowed in part to the extent that while the respondents are directed to permit the petitioners to exercise their options afresh in terms of the Finance Department’s Circular dated 24.12.1992 (Annexure P2) within a period of one month from the date of receipt of a certified copy of this CWP No.9772 of 2010.doc - 5 – order, no resultant arrears of pay shall be paid to them and they shall be entitled for notional pay fixation only w.e.f. 01.01.1986, 01.01.1996 and 01.01.2006, as the case may be. The petitioners, however, shall be paid emoluments/pension along with arrears as per their re-fixed pay w.e.f. 01.03.2010 onwards. (12). Ordered accordingly. (13). Dasti . (SURYA KANT) JUDGE 25.05.2010 vishal shonkar