IN THE HON'BLE PUNJAB & HARYANA HIGH COURT AT CHANDIGARH CIVIL WRIT PETITION 5956 OF 2008 DECIDED ON :18th NOVEMBER, 2008 Charan Dass ....Petitioner versus State of Haryana ....Respondent CORAM : HON'BLE MR.JUSTICE MEHTAB S GILL HON'BLE MR.JUSTICE K.KANNAN Present: Shri D.S.Rawat, Advocate, for the petitioner Shri Harish Rathee, Senior DAG, Haryana SHRI K.KANNAN, J (ORAL) I The lis:- (i) In a pre-85th amendment case, a general category employee seeks an answer to the denial of stepping up of pay after gaining promotion at par with the junior who gained promotion earlier on roster point reservation. The writ petition came to be filed after a direction from this Hon'ble High Court in CWP 17344 of 2007 to the respondents to consider and dispose of the legal notice which was filed by the employees of the impugned proceedings dated 04-02-2008. II Facts:- (ii)The petitioner who belonged to a general category had joined the respondent No.2- department as Clerk on 30-10-1973. Another employee, by name, Rameshwar Dass Jangra joined the same department as Clerk as “BC”category on 16-04-1974. He gained promotion as Assistant (Level 2) on a vacancy available against the post for reserved category on 01-04-1982 while the petitioner gained his promotion on his turn on 27-10-1993. He was started at the lowest pay scale of promotion post and he gained his further next promotion as Deputy Superintendent (Level 3) on 02-10-2006 while Rameshwar Dass Jangra was promoted to the said post on 22-01-2007. The department did not step up his scale of pay on the “catching up principle” at the promotion post when he was promoted as an Assistant although he had been assigned a higher seniority position at serial number 218 when Rameshwar had been placed at CWP 5956 of 2008 --2-- serial Number 238. Resultantly, the petitioner was drawing a salary less than what was given to Rameshwar Dass Jangra in the promotion post. III Ajit Singh's case dispensation:- (iii) The decision of the Hon'ble Supreme Court in Ajit Singh Jasuja versus State of Punjab and others reported in JT 1999(7)SC 153 held that though a reserved category employee could be promoted to higher post on the basis of reservation roster point earlier to a senior general category employee, when the latter is promoted, he would catch up with the reserved category junior on the last higher post, after which there exists no reservation in promotion and the general category employee declared senior in that particular post would be granted benefits accordingly. The Chief Secretary to the Government of Haryana had issued instructions dated 14-10- 1999 (Annexure P-1) in which it was clearly explained that no employee belonging to the reserved category should be allowed the benefit of accelerated seniority over his/her senior belonging to general category from the field of service under the Policy of Reservation. On the application of the judgement and the notification, the petitioner ought to have been put on a scale of pay commensurate with the seniority above Rameshwar Dass Jangra. By not granting the benefit, Rameshwar Dass Jangra was drawing Rs.6200/-as his basic pay while petitioner was drawing Rs.5300/-as his basic pay. Even after the promotion to the post of Deputy Superintendent, the basic pay of the petitioner was Rs.7250/-as compared to Rameshwar Dass Jangra who had joined in the scale of Rs.8000/-. IV The grievance:- (iv) The grievance of the petitioner against the respondent, the failure on the part of the respondents to step up the pay resulted in gross inequity and the Civil Surgeon, Kaithal had even recommended the case of the petitioner for notional promotion and for stepping up his pay vide his letter dated 17-05-2007. The petitioner served a legal notice on the respondents on 23-07-2007 and followed it up with CWP 17344 of 2007. The respondents issued the impugned proceedings on the ground that the petitioner had been promoted from the post of Deputy Superintendent (Level 3) to the Superintendent (Level 4) while Rameshwar Dass jangra had superannuated even without reaching Level 4. The impugned proceedings restricted CWP 5956 of 2008 --3-- its own instructions dated 14-11-1999 and later affirmed by instructions dated 27-11- 2006 to be confined only to situation where a junior employee of reserved category reaching Level 3 also reached Level 4 and since Rameshwar had already superannuated before reaching Level 4, the stepping up of pay did not arise. The restrictive application which the impugned proceedings made, seems in our view, to be not based on any legal reasoning and non-sequeter. The instructions themselves came to be issued only to give effect to the decision of the Hon'ble Supreme Court which clearly lays down that a senior employee in the general category though may be promoted to a later date, would catch up at the promotion post with a junior employee who had been promoted earlier on a roster point. The action of the respondent also betrayed invidious discriminatory treatment in that the Director, Food & Supplies Department had applied the instructions to the case of Munish Kumar over the claims of Shri Rajbir Singh as seen from the proceedings of the Director, Food and Supplies Department, Haryana, dated 13-07-2007 (Annexure P-3) and even the Chief Secretary to Government of Haryana has issued an order dated 13-11-2007 setting out the correct position as to how Ajit Singh Jasuja's disposition was to be understood and applied to similar situation. V Conclusion:- (v) The petitioner is entitled to be stepped up in his scale of pay on the date of his promotion to the next higher post as Assistant on par with his junior Rameshwar who was promoted earlier and still later to the posts of Deputy Superintendents and Superintendents at the respective Levels 2, 3 & 4 from the dates when he assumed office at the promotion posts. The impugned order dated 04-02-2008 is set aside and the writ petition is allowed as prayed for. Sd/- Sd/- {MEHTAB S GILL} {K.KANNAN} JUDGE JUDGE 18th November, 2008 mandeepkr