Case: E.S.P.Rajaram and Ors Vs. Union of India and Ors

the Court has necessary jurisdiction and power to do so. Accordingly, contentions (A) and (B) are held and answered against the petitioners." 20. In the case of Ved Prakash and others v. Union of India and others, 1994(1) SCC 45, taking note of the piquant situation caused due to inordinate delay in payment of compensation for the property acquired under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act, this Court made the following observation : "The petitioners because of the delay and inaction on the part of the respondents are in a great predicament. Any amount determined as market value of their lands acquired, with reference to the dates of issuance of notifications under sub-section (1) of Section 4 of the Act i.e. at the rate prevalent 15-21 years prior to the dates of the making of the award, cannot be held to be compliance of the mandate regarding payment of market value of the land so acquired under the Constitution and the Act. This Court faced with such a situation where proceedings have remained pending for years after issuance of declarations under Section 6, in order to protect the petitioners concerned from irreparable injury i.e. getting compensation for their lands acquired with reference to the date of notification under sub-section (1) of Section 4, which may be more than a decade before the date of the making of the award, has advanced the date of notification under sub-section (1) of Section, so that market value of the land so acquired is paid at a just and reasonable rate. Reference in this connection may be made to the cases of Ujjain Vikas Pradhikaran v. Raj Kumar Johri, (1992)1 SCC 328 ; Akhara Brahm Buta, Amritsar v. State of Punjab, (1992)4 SCC 243 and Bihar State Housing Board v. Ram Bihari Mahato, AIR 1988 Supreme Court 2134. This Court has advanced the date of notification under sub-section (1) of Section 4 of the Act, in the cases referred to above, without assigning any reason, as to how the date fixed by Sections 11 and 23 of the Act, can be altered for ascertainment of the market value of land. The power of the Court under Article 142 is very wide and can be exercised in the ends of justice. The scope of the said Article was recently examined in the case of Union Carbide Corpn. v. Union of India, 1991(4) SCC 584." (Emphasis supplied) 21. In the case of N.A. Mohammed Kasim (Dead) and another v. Sulochana and others, (1995) Supp 3 SCC 128, which arose from a civil suit this Court in the facts and circumstances of the case considered it fit for invoking Courts power under Article 142 for giving equitable relief to the plaintiff-respondents, not on ground on which they claimed relief in the suit but on the ground of promissory estoppel, equity and fair play. 22. From the conspectus of the views expressed in the decided cases noted above it is clear that this Court has invoked the powers vested under Section 142 of the Constitution in different types of cases involving different fact situations for doing complete justice between the parties. 23. In the case on hand the controversy relates to the scale of pay admissible for Traffic Apprentices in the Railways appointed prior to the cut-off date. The controversy in its very nature is one which applies to all such employees of the Railways; it is not a controversy which is confined to some individual employees or a section of the employees. If the judgment of the tribunal which had taken a view contrary to the ratio laid down by judgment of this Court in M. Bhaskars case (supra) was allowed to stand then the resultant position would have been that some Traffic Apprentices who were parties in those cases would have gained an unfair and undeserved advantage over other employees who are or were holding the same post. Such enviable position would not only have been per se discriminatory but could have resulted in a situation which is undesirable for a cadre of large number of employees in a big establishment like that of the Indian Railways. To avoid such a situation this Court made the observations in paragraph 17 of the judgment. At the cost of repetition we may reiterate that since the main plank of argument of the appellants was that since they were not parties in the case they had no opportunity to place their case before this Court made the observations in paragraph 17 of the judgment as aforementioned we specifically asked learned counsel appearing for the parties to place the argument in support of their challenge to the observations made by this Court on merits. No point of substance assailing the observations on merits could be placed by them. The only contention made in that regard was some of the employes who were given benefit in the judgments of the CAT have got further promotions and they may lose the benefit of such promotion in case the observations made in paragraph 17 of the judgment are allowed to stand as it is. We are not impressed by the contention raised. If some employees were unjustly and improperly granted a higher scale of pay and on that basis were given promotion to a higher post then the basis of such promotion been on a non-existent; the superstructure built on such foundation should not be allowed to stand. This is absolutely necessary for the sake of maintaining equality and fair play with the other similarly placed employees. However, in our considered view, it will be just and fair to clarify that any amount drawn by such employees either in the basic post (Traffic Apprentice) or in a promotional post will not be required to be refunded by the employee concerned as a consequence of this judgment. This position also follows as a necessary corollary from the observations made by this Court in paragraph 18 of the judgment in M. Bhaskars case (supra).

Decision (1 = appeal accepted, 0 = rejected): 0

Explanation:
0[ds]8. We have carefully perused the judgment in M. Bhaskars case (supra). The decision in that case has been taken on a detailed analysis of the relevant provisions of the Indian Railway Establishment Code and the Indian Railway Establishment Manual (1968 Edn.), and in the light of certain general principles of law relating to recruitment cogent reasons have been given in support of the findings and conclusions arrived at in the judgment. As noted earlier no contention was advanced before us pointing out any serious error in the decision therein. We are satisfied that in the facts and circumstances of the case placed before their Lordships the decision is correct and warrants no interference.From the conspectus of the views expressed in the decided cases noted above it is clear that this Court has invoked the powers vested under Section 142 of the Constitution in different types of cases involving different fact situations for doing complete justice between the parties.In the case on hand the controversy relates to the scale of pay admissible for Traffic Apprentices in the Railways appointed prior to thedate. The controversy in its very nature is one which applies to all such employees of the Railways; it is not a controversy which is confined to some individual employees or a section of the employees. If the judgment of the tribunal which had taken a view contrary to the ratio laid down by judgment of this Court in M. Bhaskars case (supra) was allowed to stand then the resultant position would have been that some Traffic Apprentices who were parties in those cases would have gained an unfair and undeserved advantage over other employees who are or were holding the same post. Such enviable position would not only have been per se discriminatory but could have resulted in a situation which is undesirable for a cadre of large number of employees in a big establishment like that of the Indian Railways. To avoid such a situation this Court made the observations in paragraph 17 of the judgment. At the cost of repetition we may reiterate that since the main plank of argument of the appellants was that since they were not parties in the case they had no opportunity to place their case before this Court made the observations in paragraph 17 of the judgment as aforementioned we specifically asked learned counsel appearing for the parties to place the argument in support of their challenge to the observations made by this Court on merits. No point of substance assailing the observations on merits could be placed by them. The only contention made in that regard was some of the employes who were given benefit in the judgments of the CAT have got further promotions and they may lose the benefit of such promotion in case the observations made in paragraph 17 of the judgment are allowed to stand as it is. We are not impressed by the contention raised. If some employees were unjustly and improperly granted a higher scale of pay and on that basis were given promotion to a higher post then the basis of such promotion been on athe superstructure built on such foundation should not be allowed to stand. This is absolutely necessary for the sake of maintaining equality and fair play with the other similarly placed employees. However, in our considered view, it will be just and fair to clarify that any amount drawn by such employees either in the basic post (Traffic Apprentice) or in a promotional post will not be required to be refunded by the employee concerned as a consequence of this judgment. This position also follows as a necessary corollary from the observations made by this Court in paragraph 18 of the judgment in M. Bhaskars case (supra).