IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA CWJC No.12104 of 2003 DEVENDRA PRASAD SINGH Son of Late Ramsagar Singh, Resident of village Andour P.S. Mohaddi Nagar, District Samastipur. At present posted as Librarian Ras College, Andour Mohaddinagar, Samastipur. Versus 1. THE LALIT NARAYAN MITHILA UNIVERSITY through its Vice Chancellor Kameshwar Nagar, Darbhanga. 2. The Registrar, Lalit Narayan Mithila University, Kameshwar Nagar Darbhanga. 3. The Finance Officer, LNMU, Kameshwar Nagar Darbhanga. 4. The Principal Ras College, Andour Mohaddinagar District Samastipur. ----------- 5 24.09.2010 Having heard counsel for the petitioner and counsel for the State, this Court is of the opinion that the following prayer of the petitioner made in paragraph 1 of this writ application:- “That this is an application for the issuance of a writ in the nature of mandamus commanding the respondents with direction to remove anomalies in the pay scale of petitioner after placing him in proper scale according to the post he holds and functions.” in the first instance will have to be addressed by the authorities of the University especially when neither they have chosen to file counter affidavit nor even the counsel appearing for the University is present. The grievance of the petitioner as noted above in the prayer is for payment of salary in the scale of Librarian and his specific assertion is that though he is not the degree holder in Library Science he cannot be deprived of the payment of salary on the post of Librarian as qualification for the post of Librarian with degree of Library Science was introduced in the year, 1986, whereas, appointment of the petitioner by the private Governing Body was made on the post of Librarian way back on 1.5.1972. 2 The matter in issue however is not as simple as has been projected by the learned counsel for the petitioner. For each of the College there was a sanctioned staffing pattern and thus when the affiliated College became constituent those staffing pattern cannot be ignored unless the Government had sanctioned the posts after it became constituent. The Bandhopadhayay Committee’s report of the year 1981 had specifically made number of students as a criteria for creation and sanctioned of post in affiliated college and it cannot be said even for a College of 400 students having more than 1000 books, there would a sanctioned post of Librarian in the same manner in which there would be a post of Librarian having strength of 2000 students with 5000 books. Thus, the moment the petitioner would claim parity and pay scale of the post of Librarian in the University Pay scale he will have to first establish that there was a sanctioned post of Librarian available in the College on the date of his appointment and also when it became constituent unit of the University. True it is that the subsequent amendment of qualification for the post of Librarian cannot be made criteria for grant of pay scale of existing Librarian but if there has been a conscious decision of the State Government and funds have been given by classifying the Librarian in two categories and by putting the Librarian having the degree in Librarian Science to be of superior category and providing a better pay scale that cannot be 3 claimed by the petitioner as a matter of right by using the nomenclature of the designation of the post of Librarian held by him. Every revision of pay scale has got its special condition and if the Government had prescribed the post of Librarian having the qualification of degree in Library Science to be a condition precedent for grant of higher pay scale that may not become automatically available to the lot of Librarians not holding the qualification of degree in Library Science. All these aspects therefore need to be examined by the authorities of the University in the light of the facts and circumstances of the case of the petitioner and in fact had the University been conscious and careful, a decision could have been taken by this Court but as the University itself has not filed any counter affidavit it must be primarily held responsible for creating the series of uncalled for litigations. Thus in order to expedite the matter, this Court would give liberty to the petitioner to file a self contained representation addressed to the Registrar of the University and a final decision on such representation will be taken within a period of six months from the date of receipt/production of a copy of this order. It goes without saying that if claim of the petitioner is allowed the consequential financial benefit should also be extended to him within a period of three months thereafter providing funds for the same is available with the University. With the aforementioned observations and directions 4 this application is disposed of. Abhay Kumar ( Mihir Kumar Jha, J.)