IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH Civil Writ Petition No. 9294 of 1993 Date of decision: 21.01.2010 Thana Singh and others ....Petitioners versus The Punjab State Electricity Board and another ...Respondents CORAM: HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE K. KANNAN ---- Present: Mr.Jaspal Singh Maanipur, Advocate, for the petitioners. Mr. Y.P.Khullar, Advocate, for the respondents. ---- 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 ? ---- K.Kannan, J. (Oral) 1. Through the writ petition, the petitioners, who are all Sub Fire Officers in Group-XII in the Punjab State Electricity Board, seek for a parity in scales of pay to the scales which have been applied to similar officers working in civil services under the Punjab Government. As an alternative relief, it is also contended that within the same group, the Electricity Board has made discrimination and they have granted higher scales of pay for some class of persons, while denying to them the same benefit of higher scales. Civil Writ Petition No.9294 of 1993 - 2 - 2. As regards the first plea, that the employees of the State Electricity Board must be granted parity in wages to the persons working in the civil services of the Public Government, the response by the State is that the Electricity Board is an autonomous body set up under Section 5 of the Electricity Supply Act and that they are entitled to devise their own scales of pay for its employees. The scales could have bearing to the nature of jobs assigned, productivity of employees, the profitability, the nature of service etc. The Punjab Electricity Board itself has through a policy adopted the parity as regards travelling allowance, daily allowance, rates of hotel charges, entitlement of journey by train, bus and air and rates of mileage allowance etc. through its office order dated 21.02.1980. It is more a matter of policy than what could be dictated by a Court direction. The claim to the parity with the State Government can not be acceded to . 3. As regards the contention of the petitioners that within the same category, there cannot be discrimination in the scales of pay, the response on behalf of the Electricity Board is that the persons within the same category perform different duties and there is no homogeneity and they are entitled to apply different scales of pay. To a query as to the basis for categorization made in the year, 1979, and how when the Electricity Board decided to improve the scales of pay, they had taken a decision for all the persons within group-XII that included Head Clerk, Head Clerk-cum-Divisional Accountant, Internal Auditor and Sub Fire Officers, to apply the same scales of pay, the revised scales and the improved scales to apply to all persons, all categories within the same Civil Writ Petition No.9294 of 1993 -3 - category, the respondent has no valid answer to give. Grouping within a category itself would have a meaning, only if there is some treatment of homogeneity either as regards the nature of work or the department they were working or the scales of pay. If at some point of time, although the persons within the same group performed different actions if they are accorded the same scales of pay and if it is denied subsequently when the scales were increased for three classes of persons within group XII, unless a justification is given for not affording a similar benefit also to persons like the petitioners, who are Sub Fire Officers, such treatment shall only be seen as discriminatory that would fall foul of Article 14 o the Constitution. I have not been shown any relevant consideration as to why a denial of higher scales that was offered to the other classes of persons referred to above within group XII was made for fire officers only. The plea of the petitioners have been at some point of time even supported by Superintending Engineer, Thermal O.P. Circle by in his communication to the Chief Engineer on 25.03.1991. It is seen from the records that the petitioners have been pressing for the demands through various representations to the Secretary (Finance Section) of the Electricity Board and to the administrative branches of the Electricity Board and it is not as if there has been any let up or laxity on the part of the petitioners at any point of time complaining against a treatment of what was perceived by them to be discriminatory. The contention of the counsel for the respondents that the petitioners are guilty of laches has therefore, no substance. 4. The petitioners shall be, therefore, entitled to same scales of Civil Writ Petition No.9294 of 1993 - 4 - pay as the scales admissible and granted to the other classes of persons within the same group i.e. group XII of Electricity Board and the arrears that have accumulated over a period of time, shall be calculated and paid to the petitioners and to all the persons falling within the same class, within a period of 12 weeks from the date of receipt of the copy of the order. 5. The writ petition is allowed on the above terms. (K.KANNAN) JUDGE 21.01.2010. sanjeev