IN THE HIGH COURT OF KERALA AT ERNAKULAM WP(C) No. 10527 of 2007(S) 1. UNION OF INDIA, REPRESENTED BY THE ... Petitioner 2. THE DEPUTY SECRETARY(PV), 3. THE PASSPORT OFFICER, Vs 1. M.RAVEENDRAN NAIR, S/O.LATE ... Respondent For Petitioner :SRI.JOHN VARGHESE, ASSISTANT SG For Respondent : No Appearance The Hon'ble MR. Justice J.B.KOSHY The Hon'ble MR. Justice T.R.RAMACHANDRAN NAIR Dated :27/03/2007 O R D E R J.B. Koshy & T.R. Ramachandran Nair, JJ. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - W.P.(C).NO.10527 of 2007-S - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Dated this the 27th day of March, 2007 JUDGMENT
T.R. Ramachandran Nair, J.
The petitioners are challenging Ext.P2 order of the Central
Administrative Tribunal, Ernakulam Bench whereby the Tribunal held that
the applicant before the Tribunal is entitled to get his pay fixed on his
regular appointment in the scale of pay of Rs.2550-3200 after counting
increments earned by him during his service as temporary status casual
labourer. A consequent direction was issued to refix his pay after taking
into account the increments drawn by him as temporary status casual
labourer and grant him the consequential benefits within a time frame.
2. The respondent herein who is an Ex-serviceman joined the Passport
Office, Kozhikode on daily wages and was granted temporary status in the
year 1993. While he was working as a temporary status casual labourer, he
had been drawing salary in the pay scale of Rs.2550-3200 in the stage of
Rs.3020/- after getting 8 increments. As per Annexure A2, he was
appointed as a regular Group D Watchman. But his pay was fixed only at
Rs.2550/- in the minimum of the pay scale of Rs.2550-3200. All the
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representations submitted by him to restore the position have been rejected.
3. The Tribunal relied upon the earlier orders in O.A. No.606/2001
filed by another employee of the Kozhikode Passport Office which followed
the order of the Hyderabad Bench of the Tribunal in O.A. No.1051/1998.
The order passed in O.A. No.606/2001 has been upheld by this court by
judgment dated 15.2.2002 in O.P.No.4400/2002. The Tribunal also relied
upon the judgment of this court in O.P.No.13244/2001 which was against
the order of the Tribunal in O.A. No.1373/1999.
4. The increments drawn by the respondent as temporary status
casual labourer is liable to be reckoned for fixing his pay on regularisation,
as the said career cannot be effaced. In spite of the fact that the said legal
position has been reiterated in various decisions, the petitioners have chosen
to reduce the pay of the respondent when he was regularised as a Group D.
This action is clearly arbitrary. We see no reason to interfere with the order
of the Tribunal. At any rate, the view taken by the Tribunal only follows the
views taken in earlier orders as affirmed by this court in various judgments
and hence is not perverse warranting any interference in a writ petition
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under Article 227 of the Constitution of India.
Therefore, the writ petition fails. It is accordingly dismissed.
(J.B. Koshy, Judge.)
(T.R. Ramachandran Nair, Judge.)