Central Administrative Tribunal - Madras
K Boopalan vs Comptroller And Auditor-General Of ... on 30 April, 2025
1 OA No.310/01410/ 2015
CENTRAL ADMINISTRATIVE TRIBUNAL
CHENNAI BENCH
OA/310/01410/2015
Dated this the 30th day of April, Two Thousand Twenty Five
CORAM :
HON'BLE MR M. SWAMINATHAN. MEMBER (J)
AND
HON'BLE MR. SANGAM NARAIN SRIVASTAVA, MEMBER(A)
1.K. Boopalan,
S/o M. Kanniappan
2.Ramani Jeevarathinam
D/o S.B. Natarajan
3.K.S. Sakunthala
D/o K.V.S. Rajan
4.S. Nambi
S/o A.Sivalingam
5.D. Padmaja
D/o S. Desikachari
6.M. Vatsala
D/o P. Madhavaraj
7.Rangamani Srinivasan
S/o S.S. Ramanujam
8.S. Nagalakshmi
D/o N. Venkatesan
9.T. Parimalakshmi
D/o N. Renganathan
10.Velammal Subramanian
D/o O. Paramasivam
2 OA No.310/01410/ 2015
11. Malathi Krishnamurthy
D/o M.R. Narayanan
12.Mythili Govindan
D/o late V.V. Raghavan
13.Latha Chandrasekaran
D/o K. Meenakshi Sundaram
14.Shanthi Balan
D/o E.R.Doraiswami Iyengar
15.Ramamani Rangan
S/o C.P. Narayana Rao
16.T. Lakshmi
W/o S. Thiagarajan
17.A. Kamala
W/o P. Arunachalam
18. S. Swarnakumari
W/o M.Shanmuga Sundaram
19. Indira Aravamudan
D/o T.V. Ranganathan
20. B. Revathy
D/o R. Gopalan
21. Vatchala Gridharan
D/o B.A. Baskaran
22. P. Vijayalakshmi
D/o T.D. Nagarathinam
23. V. Kamala
W/o R. Venkatachalam
24. Baby Sekar
W/o Rajabather
3 OA No.310/01410/ 2015
25.Nirmala Philominaraj
W/o A. Selvanathan
26. V. Nirmala
W/o G. Venugopal
27. R. Uma
D/o E.S. Ramaswamy
28. A. Seethalakshmi
W/o Anjaneyan
29. Vimala Subramanian
D/o A.S. Rangasamy
30. D. Nagalakshmi
W/o M. Duraisamy
31. K.S. Dharmambal
W/o K.S.Subramanian
32. N. Gangabagirathi
D/o T.S. Rajagopala Sasrigal
33. K. Suseela
D/o T.K. Thiruvenkatachari
34. Rani Pinakapani
D/o Manickam
35. K. Janaki
D/o V. Srinivasan
36. N. Sampath
S/o T.E. Narasimhan
37. Kamakshi Srinivasan
D/o S.K. Krishnamurthy
4 OA No.310/01410/ 2015
38. T. Rajeswari,
W/o T.C. Thirthagiri
- All were working as Senior Accounts/
Assistant Accounts Officers,
O/o the Principal Accountant General
(A&E), Tamil Nadu, Chennai .. Applicants
By Advocate M/s. S. Sadasharam
Vs.
1. Union of India
rep by The Comptroller & Auditor
General of India,
10, Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg,
New Delhi.
2. Principal Accountant General (A& E)
Tamil Nadu, Chennai .. Respondents
By Advocate Mr. V. Vijay Shankar
5 OA No.310/01410/ 2015
ORDER
(Pronounced by Hon'ble Mr. M. Swaminathan, Judicial Member) This OA has been filed by the applicants seeking the following relief:
"........ to set aside the impugned orders pass by the 2nd respondent dated 26.05.2015 and direct the respondents to consider the claim of the applicants for grant of financial upgradation under ACP Scheme dated 09.08.199 for their continuous service for more than 12 years as Senior Accountants/Adhoc Accounts Officers in the post of Senior Accounts/Adhoc Accounts Officers and sanction the arrears to be paid to the applicants from the date on which they are eligible to get financial upgradation under the ACP Scheme dated 09.08.199 following the 5th pay commission recommendation and pass such further or other orders as this Tribunal may deem fit and proper in the circumstances of the case and thus render justice"
2. The facts leading to the filing of the OA are as follows:
The applicants filed OA No. 270 of 2015 before this Tribunal seeking a direction to the respondents to consider their claim for the grant of one financial upgradation under the ACP Scheme dated 09.08.1999. This claim is based on the representation dated 23.12.2014 submitted by the Accounts Employees Association, highlighting the applicants' continuous service of more than 12 years in the cadre of Senior Accountants. The applicants also sought the sanction and payment of arrears from the date on which they became eligible for the said financial upgradation. This Tribunal, by its order, dated 20.02.2013, disposed of the OA, directing the respondents to 6 OA No.310/01410/ 2015 consider the applicants' representation on its merits and in accordance with the law, and to pass a reasoned and speaking order. However, the respondents have since passed the impugned order rejecting the applicants' claim, in contravention of the directions issued by this Tribunal.
Consequently, the present OA has been filed by the applicants seeking appropriate relief and justice.
3. The main contention of the learned counsel for the applicants is that the applicants are eligible and entitled to financial upgradation under the ACP Scheme dated 09.08.1999, on the ground that they have been continuously serving in the post of Senior Accountants/Ad-hoc Accounts Officers for more than 12 years. He further submitted that there is no justifiable reason for the respondents to have failed in considering the applicants' claim for financial upgradation under the said ACP Scheme, to which they are duly entitled.
4. The learned counsel also submitted that the impugned orders issued by the 2nd respondent are arbitrary and have been passed without due consideration of the principle of 'equal pay for equal work'. He contended that the orders are in violation of Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution of India. Furthermore, he argued that the respondents ought not to have 7 OA No.310/01410/ 2015 rejected the claim of the applicants, especially when they have completed 12 years of continuous service and are thus eligible for financial upgradation to the post of Assistant Accounts Officer in accordance with the recommendations of the 5th Pay Commission. Accordingly, he prayed for the reliefs sought in the present OA.
5. In contrast, the learned counsel for the respondents submitted that the applicants in the present OA were initially appointed as Clerks in the respondent department, subsequently promoted to the post of Accountant, and later to the post of Senior Accountant/Ad-hoc Section Officer. Both these promotions involved pay fixation in accordance with the applicable rules governing promotional pay fixation.
6. He contended that, under the ACP Scheme, only those employees who have not received two promotions during their service are eligible for financial upgradation. In the present case, the applicants have already received two promotions from their entry-level grade; hence, they are not eligible for any further financial upgradation under the ACP Scheme and fall outside its scope.
8 OA No.310/01410/ 2015
7. He further submitted that the scheme is intended to address cases of career stagnation by ensuring a minimum of two upgradations during the service of a Government servant. If an employee has already received two promotions or upgradations, they are expressly excluded from the benefits of the scheme. He emphasized that promotions and financial upgradations are mutually exclusive and cannot be granted concurrently, as doing so would result in an unintended benefit and undermine the objective of the scheme. Accordingly, he prayed for dismissal of the present OA.
8. We have considered the rival contentions, perused the pleadings and the materials placed on record.
9. The Assured Career Progression (ACP) Scheme for civilian employees of the Central Government was implemented with effect from 09.08.1999 to address the issue of genuine stagnation faced by employees due to limited promotional opportunities. Under the scheme, in cases of acute stagnation, employees are granted two financial upgradations,upon completion of 12 and 24 years of regular service, respectively.
10. It is worthwhile to extract the relevant portion of the ACP scheme which deals with the present issue:
9 OA No.310/01410/ 2015
"5.1 Two financial upgradations under the ACP Scheme in the entire Government service career of an employee shall be counted against regular promotions (including in-situ promotion and fast-track promotion availed through limited departmental competitive examination) availed from the grade in which an employee was appointed as a direct recruit. This shall mean that two financial upgradations under the ACP Scheme shall be available only if no regular promotions during the prescribed periods (12 and 24 years) have been availed by an employee. If an employee has already got one regular promotion, he shall qualify for the second financial upgradation only on completion of 24 years of regular service under the ACP Scheme. In case two prior promotions on regular basis have already been received by an employee, no benefit under the ACP Scheme shall accrue to him;"
11. In the present case, all the applicants were initially appointed as Clerks in the respondents' department and were subsequently promoted to the posts of Accountant and later to Senior Accountant/Ad-hoc Section Officer. Thus, the applicants have received two promotions during their career. Since they have already been promoted twice from their entry-level grade, they do not fall within the scope of the ACP Scheme. Moreover, these promotions were to higher functional posts, namely, Senior Accountant and Assistant Accounts Officer and the benefit of pay fixation under FR 22-C was duly extended to all such promotees. Therefore, as the applicants have already availed two promotions within a span of 24 years, the question of granting financial upgradation under the ACP Scheme does not arise.
10 OA No.310/01410/ 2015
12. In the above circumstances, we find that there is no merit in the contention of the applicants for the relief sought in the OA. As the OA lacks merit and the same is liable to be dismissed and it is dismissed accordingly. No order is made to costs.
(SANGAM NARAIN SRIVASTAVA) (M. SWAMINATHAN)
MEMBER(A) MEMBER(J)
30.04.2025
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