Punjab-Haryana High Court
State Of Haryana & Ors vs Jaspal Singh & Ors on 4 July, 2013
Bench: Surya Kant, Surinder Gupta
LPA No. 389 of 2013. ::-1-::
IN THE HIGH COURT FOR THE STATES OF PUNJAB
AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH.
LPA No. 389 of 2013. [O&M]
Date of Decision:04th July, 2013.
State of Haryana & Ors. Appellants through
Mr. S.S.Patter, Sr. DAG, Haryana.
Versus
Jaspal Singh & Ors. Respondents through
Mr. R.K.Malik, Sr. Advocate with Mr. Samrat Malik, Advocate.
CORAM:HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE SURYA KANT HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE SURINDER GUPTA
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? SURYA KANT, J. [ORAL] This Letters Patent Appeal impugns the order dated 22.05.2012 passed by learned Single Judge whereby the private respondents - PTIs in the Education Department, Haryana have been held entitled to the revised pay structure w.e.f. 01.01.2006 along with consequential benefits including arrears, instead of on notional basis as was granted vide the order dated 20.08.2009.
[2]. The facts are indeed not in dispute.
[3]. The Government of Haryana took a decision to revise the
pay pattern of its employees including Teachers in the Education Department w.e.f. 01.01.2006. Consequently, the Haryana Civil Services [Revised Pay] Rules, 2008 were notified under proviso to Article 309 of the Constitution whereunder various categories of employees were granted the revised pay pattern w.e.f. 01.01.2006 with all consequential benefits.
Gupta Dinesh2013.07.10 10:47 I am the author of this document Hihg Court Chandigarh LPA No. 389 of 2013. ::-2-::
[4]. It appears that inadvertently, some categories of teachers, like PTIs, Art & Craft [Drawing] Teachers and Cutting & Tailoring Teachers were left out. These teachers also represented the State Government to grant them the revised pay structure and realizing that a mistake was committed, the order dated 20.08.2009 was issued where-under the pay scales of above mentioned left out categories of teachers were also revised w.e.f. 01.01.2006 but on notional basis with a further stipulation that the actual scales would be released to them w.e.f. 01.09.2009.
[5]. The solitary question that arose for consideration before the learned Single Judge was whether the above mentioned categories of teachers were also entitled to actual benefit of pay revision w.e.f. 01.01.2006?
[6]. Learned Single Judge has taken notice of the conscious decision taken by the State of Haryana to follow the pay pattern of the Government of India for the purpose of revising the pay scales of Government employees w.e.f. 01.01.2006. It was also found that about 19 different categories of teachers got the benefit of pay scales w.e.f. 01.01.2006 and only a few categories, illustratively referred to above, were left out. The State Government itself realized the mistake when it passed the order dated 20.8.2009 where-under the pay scales of the left out categories of teachers, though were revised w.e.f. 01.01.2006, but the actual benefits were restricted w.e.f. 01.09.2009. In such like undisputed factual situation, the view formed by the learned Single Judge that the private respondents were subjected to an artificial classification resulting into discriminatory Gupta Dinesh 2013.07.10 10:47 I am the author of this document Hihg Court Chandigarh LPA No. 389 of 2013. ::-3-::
treatment is fully justified.
[7]. Suffice it would be to mention that it was not a case of up- gradation of the pay scale of left out categories of teachers which could be given effect prospectively. It was a case where three or four categories of teachers were inadvertently left out and the subsequent decision was nothing but an attempt to remove the hostile discrimination, to which they were inadvertently met with. [8]. For the reasons mentioned above, we do not find any merit in this appeal which is accordingly dismissed. Dasti.
( SURYA KANT )
JUDGE
July 04, 2013. ( SURINDER GUPTA )
dinesh JUDGE
Gupta Dinesh
2013.07.10 10:47
I am the author of this
document
Hihg Court Chandigarh