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
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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