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In this case the dispute relates to the discrimination that has been brought about by the Central Government re- garding the Special Pay payable to the two groups of offi- cers, namely, 'deputationists' and 'non-deputationists'. While a Deputy Superintendent of Police who belongs to the category of 'deputationists' is getting Rs. 150 per month by way of Special Pay, a Deputy Superintendent of Police who is a non-deputationist gets Rs. 100 per month as Special Pay. Similarly while an Inspector belonging to the former catego- ry gets Rs. 125 per month as Special Pay, an Inspector belonging to the latter category gets Rs.75 per month as Special Pay and while a Sub-Inspector belonging to the former category gets Rs. 100 per month by way of Special Pay, a Sub-Inspector belonging to the latter category gets Rs.50 per month. The petitioners, who are non-deputation- ists, claim that they should also be paid the same Special Pay which the deputationists are getting with effect from the date on which the deputationists commenced to draw the Special Pay at higher rates.

The two groups of officers, referred to above are all working in the 14 Branches of the Central Bureau of Investi- gation which are called Central Investigating Units. It is not disputed that the two sets of officers, namely the 'non-deputationists' and the 'deputationists' in the ranks of Sub-Inspectors, Inspectors and Deputy Superintendents of Police discharge the same functions, duties and responsibil- ities in the various Central Investigating Units. They have to travel to different places for purposes of investigation into the several cases entrusted to them. The Special pay that is being paid to the deputationists is in addition to the Deputation Allowance paid to them which is not admissi- ble to the non-deputationists. The Deputation Allowance is paid to the deputationists as compensation for the temporary displace- ment from their parent cadres occasioned by their deputation to the Central Bureau of Investigation. At present a Deputy Superintendent of Police who is on deputation gets Rs. 150 per month as Deputation Allowance, an Inspector who is on deputation gets Its. 125 per month as Deputation Allowance and a Sub-Inspector who is on deputation gets Rs. 100 per month as Deputation Allowance. It is also alleged that in the non Central Investigating Units of the Central Bureau of Investigation the rates of Special Pay paid to the officers working in the three cadres of Sub-Inspectors, Inspectors and Deputy Superintendents of Police are the same both in the case of deputationists and non-deputationists, but in the case of Central Investigating Units, however, to which the petitioners belong the deputationists in all the three ranks get Special Pay at higher rates as stated above. It would also appear that between June, 1976 and August, 1979 the Deputy Superintendents of Police belonging to the cate- gory of non-deputationists were totally denied the Special Pay of Rs. 150 per month which was being given to the Deputy Superintendents of Police who are on deputation. It is contended by the petitioners that the denial, of the Special pay at the same rates at which. the deputationists are being paid amounts to violation of Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution of India.

"Recently ..... we have been able to get higher special pay sanctioned for all the Investigating officers posted in Central Units. This should compensate them to a certain extent for the arduous nature of the job which they have to perform in a Central Unit .... "

A reading of that letter does not, however, suggest that the Director had noticed that the rates of Special Pay had been increased only in the case of deputationists and not in the case of non-deputationists. By its letter dated 2.2.1978 Shri P.C. Sharma, who was then working as Sub-Inspector (now Inspector and one of the Petitioners herein) submitted a representation to the Director requesting that he might also be granted enhanced rate of Special Pay at par with the deputationist Sub-Inspectors posted in Central Units with retrospective effect. He pointed out that he had been work- ing in one of the Central Units and that he had been per- forming the same duties as any of the deputationist officers in the Central Units. He further stated that the job re- quirements in the Central Units did not make any distinction between a deputationist and a non-deputationist Sub-Inspec- tor and that often it had been found that assignments of complicated nature had been entrusted to the non-deputation- ists. Similar representations were made by other Sub-Inspec- tors and Inspectors who are petitioners before us. Along with his letter dated 8.2.1978 the Superintendent of Police, Central Bureau of Investigation forwarded to the Central Government eight such representations for the grant of Special Pay at the enhanced rates. On 22.2. 1978 the Minis- try of Home Affairs intimated the Superintendent of Police, Central Bureau of Investigation that the question of grant of Special Pay to the non-deputationist Inspectors and Sub- Inspectors of the Central Bureau of Investigation working in the Central Branches at the same rates at which it was then admissible to the deputationist officers of the correspond- ing ranks had already been taken up with the Department of Personnel & Administrative Reforms and that the Government decision in that regard was Still awaited. On 27.8.1979 the Government of India sanctioned with immediate effect a Special Pay of Rs. 100 per month to the non-deputationist Deputy Superintendents of Police in the Central Bureau of Investigation. The question of maintaining parity in the matter of payment of Special Pay between the deputationists and the non-deputationists was taken up for consideration at the meeting of the CBI Staff Council presided over by the then Home Minister Shri Zail Singh. The Home Minister as- sured the Staff Council that the request of the non-deputa- tionists would be considered sympathetically by the Govern- ment and an early decision would be taken. The said question was again raised at the meeting of the Staff Council on the 30th October, 1982 and at the meeting held on 17.1. 1983. On 11.27.1983 the Home Department again wrote to the Superintendent of Police, Central Bureau of Investiga- tion that the question of granting of Special Pay to the non-deputationists in the Central Bureau of Investigation at the rates applicable to deputationists was still under consideration with the Government and that its decision would be communicated as and when it was taken. Again on 26.3.1984 the Home Department addressed a letter to all the Superintendents of Police on the subject of Special Pay. It reads thus:

From the foregoing discussion it emerges that the Spe- cial pay that was being paid to all the officers in the cadre of Sub-Inspectors, Inspectors and Deputy Superintend- ents of Police in the Central Investigating Units of the Central Bureau of Investigation has nothing to do with any compensation for which the deputationists may be entitled either on the ground of their richer experience or on the ground of their displacement from their parent departments in the various States, but it relates only to the arduous nature of the duties that is being performed by all of them irrespective of the fact whether they belong to the category of the 'deputationists' or to the category of the 'non- deputationists'. That being the position. the classification of the officers working in the said cadres into two groups, namely, deputationists and non-deputationists for paying different rates of Special Pay does not pass the test of classification permissible under Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution of India since it does not bear any rational relation to the object of classification. In these circumstances,. it is difficult to accept the stand of the Central Government justifying the discriminato- ry treatment meted out to the non-deputationists as regards payment of Special Pay.