Ishtiaq Ahmed And Ors. vs State Th.Higher Edu.Deptt.And Ors. on 8 December, 2016

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Jammu & Kashmir High Court

Ishtiaq Ahmed And Ors. vs State Th.Higher Edu.Deptt.And Ors. on 8 December, 2016

Bench: Ramalingam Sudhakar

                                    1




             HIGH COURT OF JAMMU AND KASHMIR
                         AT JAMMU

SWP No. 2598/2016, MP No. 01/2016


Ishtiaq Ahmed and ors.                  v         State of J&K and ors.

Coram:

    Hon'ble Mr. Justice Ramalingam Sudhakar, Judge
Appearing counsel:

For the Petitioner(s)   :   Mr. K. S. Johal, Sr. Advocate with
                            Ms Shahla Rafiqi, Advocate
For the Respondent(s        Mr. Chandan Sharma, GA

i) Whether approved for reporting in Yes NET

ii) Whether approved for reporting in No Digest/Journal

1. Notice. Mr. Chandan Sharma, learned GA accepts notice on behalf of the respondents.

2. Considering the nature of relief sought and the earlier orders passed by this Court, writ petition is admitted and taken up for final disposal.

3. The petitioners four in number plead that they are matriculate with ITI Diploma in different trades. Petitioners 1 to 3 came to be appointed as Electrician and petitioner No. 4 as Mistri in the Higher Education Department. They were appointed on the basis of qualification in respective trades. According to the petitioners, in terms of SRO 149 dated 07.04.1973, they are entitled to the benefit of higher pay 2 scale on the cadre of skilled and semi skilled workers. Pointing out that similar claim was made by skilled workers, semi skilled workers and unskilled workers of other departments like Police, Higher Education Department, Medical Departments , they seeks benefit of higher pay scale.

4. In this regard, learned counsel for the petitioners has issued a legal notice on 13.10.2016 to the respondents 2 and 3 (Annexure -'C'). In that notice details of various orders passed by this Court have been given, namely, in SWP No. 1341/99 dated 27.07.2001, confirmed by Hon'ble Division Bench of this Court in LPA (SW) 287/2002 and further upheld by the Supreme Court on 08.01.2002. It is submitted that the aforesaid orders have been complied with by the Government. Reliance is also placed on SWP No. 584/2013 filed by some of the employees of the petitioners' department which came to be disposed of on 14.03.2013 in the following manner-

"In view of the above, this petition is allowed. The petitioners are held entitled to the benefit of SRO 149 in the same manner as has been done in the aforementioned judgments. Respondents are directed to accord consideration to the case of the petitioners within a period of three months from the date copy of the order alongiwth copies of the judgments referred to hereinabove are served upon them. Petitioners, if so advised, may handover copy of the petition along with its annexures to the respondents, so as to facilitate early decision in the matter"

5. Learned counsel for the respondents states that showing compliance to the aforesaid judgment, Government passed an order dated 427-HE of 2014 dated 25.08.2014 (Annexure-'M'). Reliance is also placed on the order dated 01.04.2015 passed in SWP No. 949/2015 in relation to the Higher Education Department. Citing all this, legal notice dated 13.10.2016 was served on the Commissioner/Secretary to Government, Higher Education Department, J&K Government, Civil Secretariat, Srinagar/Jammu (J&K) and Director Colleges, Higher Education Department, J&K Government, Civil Secretariat, Srinagar//Jammu (J&K). Since the same was not considered, the petitioners have approached this Court seeking following relief:-

"i) give benefit of the provision of SRO 149 dated 07.04.1973 read with subsequent SRO issued by the Government on the subject to the petitioners.

ii) fix pay scale of the petitioners in accordance with the said SRO read with subsequent SROs on the subject .

iii) release the salary of the petitioners w.e.f.

the date they were appointed on the basis of the technical qualification i.e. ITI with matriculation on the basis of SRO 149 dated 07.04.1973 read with the subsequent SROs."

Heard learned counsel for the parties.

6. In the instant case, petitioners have issued a legal notice dated 13.10.2016 to the respondents 2 and 3, much water has been flown after that, as more than a month has passed, therefore, it will be appropriate to direct the 4 respondents 2 and 3 to accord consideration to the claim of the petitioners in relation to the legal notice dated 13.10.2016 within a period of four weeks in light of the earlier orders passed by this Court and the compliance orders details of which have been given in the legal notice.

7. Writ petition is disposed of as above.

(Ramalingam Sudhakar) Judge Jammu 08.12.2016 Bir 5 ��

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