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The gist of the matter is that the respondents department issued order dated 18.06.2018, for grant of Non Functional Upgradation (NFU) to the official on completion of four years in the grade of Rs. 4800/- to GP Rs. 5400/-. In letter dated 05.09.2018, the respondents clarified that service rendered as AAO (Ad hoc) and AAO (RT) should not be counted for calculating four years service so as to be eligible for NFU. Since the case of applicant falls within the parameter of the letter dated 05.09.2018, he submitted representation against the aforesaid order which was rejected on 29.09.2021. Thus, being aggrieved by the order of rejection, the applicant has approached this Tribunal in the instant OA with prayer to declare that he is entitled to Non-Functional Upgradation (NFU in short) Grade Pay of Rs. 5400/- w.e.f. 01.01.2016 in Pay Matrix Level-9 and, accordingly, direct the respondents 2 and 3 to pay him the differential arrears by quashing the order of rejection dated 29.09.2021 and letter dated 05.09.2018.

28. Learned counsel for the respondents also drew our attention to Parmod Kumar vs State of Haryana, 2018 (0) Supreme (P&H) 4495, where it was held that the petitioners were not entitled to count their period of adhoc/work charged/temporary service towards seniority in the cadre before the dane they were regularized and became members of service for the Orst time in terms of the relevant policies of State Government. Learned coutusel also pointedly drew our attention to a similar matter as in the present OA had been considered by the Jabalpur Bench of this Tribunal in Anand Purohit vs Union of India & Ors, in 0.A.No.1010/2010 decided on 07.08.2013. This was in the matter of pay fixation in a case of adhoc promotion followed by regular promotion without break. The contention therein was that sunce there is te definition of 'regular service' either in the Fundamental Rules (FR) or by a specific Circular, any service from the date of adhoc promotion should be considered as regular service, particularly since the applicant therein had been getting all increments in the month of July, based on the date of his adhoc promotion. The Tribunal however held that while it is true that the regular service has not been specifically defined in the FR, there was still no reason to accept adhoc service as regular service, as otherwise, there would have been no need to make a separate mention about adhoc promotion' in FR 22 and other rules under the FR. Hence, drawing from this, the Tribunal observed that the approved scheme for grant of a higher Grade Pay of Rs.5400/- by way of Non Functional Upgradation specifically mentions that only those officers were eligible, who had completed four years of regular service as an 7 O.A.260/00560 of 2022 Income Tax Officer. Thus, it was held that the four year period was to be counted from the date of regular promotion and not from the date of adhoc promotion. In other words, learned counsel for the respondents submitted that in effect in a similar matter of eligibility for entitlement to Grade Pay of Rs.5400/- to an officer who wanted his adhoc service to be counted, the Jabalpur Bench of this Tribunal had not agreed with the contention.