Rajasthan High Court - Jodhpur
Akleshwar vs . State Of Rajasthan on 10 December, 2014
1
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE FOR RAJASTHAN
AT JODHPUR.
S.B. Civil Writ Petition No.5801/2013
Akleshwar Vs. State of Rajasthan
S.B. Civil Writ Petition No.5802/2013
Sankar Lal Sad Vs. State of Rajasthan
S.B. Civil Writ Petition No.8071/2012
Mangi Lal Vs. State of Rajasthan
S.B. Civil Writ Petition No.8112/2012
Mohan Lal Vs. State of Rajasthan
Date of Order :: 10-12-2014
HON'BLE MS.JUSTICE NIRMALJIT KAUR
Mr. B.P. Mathur, for the petitioners.
Ms. Shweta Boda, for the respondent-State.
<><><><> All the above mentioned writ petitions shall stand disposed of by this common order as the issue involved is identical.
The prayer in the present petitions is to grant the benefit of regular pay scale applicable to the petitioners; further to allow the benefits of third selection grade to the petitioners on completion of 27 years of service, with all consequential benefits.
It is contended that SBCWP No.6909/2006 titled as Chandra Shekhar Vs. State of Rajasthan & Ors. was disposed of with a direction to the respondents to comply with the judgment passed by the Rajasthan Civil Service Appellate Tribunal. Some of the similarly situated persons filed Appeal No.351/1991 before the Rajasthan Civil Services Appellate Tribunal, Jaipur. The said appeal was allowed by the Tribunal vide order and judgment dated 25th February, 2002 with a direction to grant first, second and third selection grades after completion of 9, 18 and 27 of service 2 respectively. The said judgment was challenged before this Court in CWP No.4627/2005. The same was dismissed vide order dated 21.09.2005. The State challenged the order passed by the learned Single Bench before the Division Bench in Civil Appeal (Writ) No.994//2011. The said appeal was also dismissed vide order and judgment dated 11.1.2011. The order of the Tribunal became final. Meanwhile, the petitioner filed another writ petition No.6909 of 2006 seeking direction for compliance of the judgment rendered by the learned Single Bench. The same was also disposed of in the terms of earlier judgment of Single Bench. However, the order of Single Bench was challenged before the Division Bench and this time Division Bench remanded back the matter to the Single Bench to decide afresh on the basis of circular dated 16.3.2002. Thereafter, the Single Bench vide order dated 28.1.2013 decided the Civil Writ Petition No.1633/2012 titled as Vijay Pal Dabi Vs. State of Rajasthan & Ors. along with 103 other connected mattes. All these petitions were allowed as under:-
"In view of above, the present writ petition is allowed and the respondents are directed to fix the selection grades of the petitioners in the first, second and third selection grades in the pay scales of 975-1720, 1200-2050, 1640-2900 on completion of 9, 18 and 27 years of service respectively from their initial date of appointment. The exercise shall be completed within a period of two months from today."
Thereafter, the State filed Civil Appeals (Writ) No.382/2013 and 16 other appeals including the case of Vijay Pal Dabi (Supra). The Division Bench allowed the appeals in the following terms:-
"In the above view of the matter, we find substantial merit in the present appeals. The impugned 3 judgments and orders are thus set aside. We make it clear that by the determination herein the aspect of entitlement to the selection grades scales of pay on completion of 9, 18 and 27 years of services on the basis of the legal proposition as propounded in Jagdish Narain Chaturvedi (supra) has only been made."
Thereafter, the petitioners filed SLP against the above order passed by the Division Bench. The said SLP was dismissed vide order dated 27.10.2014 passed in SLP No.16708-16717/2014 titled as Karan Singh & Ors. and etc. Vs. State of Rajasthan & Ors. and other connected writs.
Thus, it is clear that now the controversy stands settled and the petitioners are entitled for the relief as per the legal proposition laid down in the case of State of Rajasthan and ors. Vs. Jagdish Narain Chaturvedi reported in (2009) 12 SC 49.
Learned counsel for the petitioner however submitted that the State was not being fair. It is stated that a total 151 matters were decided in pursuance to the order passed by the Single Bench in CWP No.1633/2012 in Vijay Pal Dabi (supra) and other matters. However, they filed Special Appeal before this Court only in 17 cases whereas they have implemented the orders qua other petitioners in the remaining writ petition decided by the Single Bench in terms of Vijay Pal Dabi's case (supra).
However, the said submission has no ground in view of the observations made by the Division Bench while dealing with the objection of the petitioner that State has implemented the order passed in Vijay Pal Dabi's case qua other connected case. The Division Bench in its order dated 25.3.2014 observed as under:- 4
"Admittedly, after this decision was rendered, the State Government vide its orders dated 29.6.2009 and 20.8.2010 did take a decision not to review the cases where the benefit of selection grade had already been granted after counting the period spent on adhoc officiation prior to 20.8.2010. As the order dated 11.10.2011 passed in D.B. Civil Special Appeal (W) No.994/2011 in State of Rajasthan & Ors. Vs. Chandra Shekhar & Ors. (Supra) would reveal, the appeal stood dismissed solely on this consideration. In our considered opinion, therefore, in the attendant facts and circumstances, reliance on this order does not advance the case of the respondents-writ-petitioners. Instead, their challenge is squarely answered by the enunciation made by the Hon'ble Apex Court in Jagdish Narain Chaturvedi (supra). They having been admittedly appointed on adhoc basis initially to be confirmed later on, in view of the above decision of the Hon'ble Apex Court, their claim for first, second and third selection grades scales of pay in terms of the circular dated 25.1.1992 has to be essentially regulated thereby. We therefore find ourselves in respectful disagreement with the view taken in the impugned judgments and orders."
Thus, the case of the petitioners is squarely covered and answered by the legal proposition of law laid down by the Apex Court in the case of Jagdish Narain Chaturvedi (supra).
Hence, all the writ petitions are disposed of in terms of the judgment rendered by the Division Bench filed in the case of DB Civil Special Appeal (Writ) No.382/2013 (State of Rajasthan & Ors. Vs. Karan Singh) which reads as under:-
"We make it clear that by the determination herein the aspect of entitlement to the selection grades scales of pay on completion of 9, 18 and 27 years of services on the basis of the legal proposition as propounded in Jagdish Narain Chaturvedi (supra) has only been made."
(NIRMALJIT KAUR), J.
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