Indian Kanoon - Search engine for Indian Law

Neutral Citation Number:2023/DHC/000062

28. It was submitted that the ICAR being a society registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860, though funded by the Government of India, has its own rules and regulations for governance. Further, in the case of the Petitioner, him being a technical employee of the ICAR, his pay scales are determined by the Technical Service Rules of the ICAR. It was submitted that the same have a unique Career Advancement Scheme in accordance with which an employee gains promotion to the next grade after every five years irrespective of the availability of a post in the higher grade. It has been submitted that the ICAR Career Advancement Scheme provides for advancement to its employees under merit promotion to the next higher grade and scale of pay irrespective of the occurrence of vacancy in the higher grade/ scale of pay based on a flexible complimentary system. It has been stated that as per the Career Advancement Scheme of the ICAR, promotion is granted to an employee irrespective of availability of a vacancy and the same cannot be compared to veterinary posts of other departments of the Government of India. Therefore, the post and service to which the Office Memorandum dated 04.05.1999 would apply to in the absence of a conscious decision of the Respondent No. 2 i.e., ICAR Society, would not apply to its Technical Employees.

30. It was submitted that the technical service of the Petitioner herein is in no manner comparable to that of a veterinary post in another government department as the technical service of the ICAR proposes a much better Career Advancement Scheme. Further, there is no post of a veterinary officer in the ICAR. The minimum eligibility criteria to be selected to the post of the Petitioner also differs from the eligibility criteria asserted by him. According to the Hand Book on Technical Service Rules of the ICAR, the essential qualification for a category II post is a three year Diploma/ Bachelor‟s Degree in the relevant field and not solely a Bachelor‟s Degree, as alleged by the Petitioner. It was stated that the Petitioner is a Technical Assistant (A.H.) for all intents and purposes. Further, his existing grade in the technical service is T-5 in the revised pay scale of Rs. 6500-10500. The Respondents have further stated that the entry grade of Technical Assistant/ Senior Technical Assistant in ICAR is T-3 in the revised pay scale of Rs.4500-7000 which was as per the recommendation of the 5 th Pay Commission and the Technical Officers serving in ICAR are certainly not serving on veterinary posts. The Petitioner was selected for the post of Technical Assistant under Category II and as per the Hand Book on Technical Service Rules (Edition I), the essential qualification for category II post was 3 years Diploma/ Bachelor‟s degree in the relevant field and not the Bachelor‟s degree in Veterinary Sciences and Animal Husbandry as claimed by the Petitioner.

40. The case of the Petitioner is that since he was granted the pay scale of Rs.2000-3500 based upon the recommendations of the 4th Pay Commission, he is entitled for revision of pay scale in the grade of Rs.8000-13500 keeping in view the recommendations of the 5th Pay Commission and the afore produced Office Memorandum.

41. This Court has carefully gone through the aforesaid office memorandum and as stated on affidavit, the ICAR is a society registered under the Societies Registration Act and is governed by its own recruitment rules. It is apparent that the Petitioner is a Technical Employee of ICAR and is governed by its Technical Service Rules. Under the same, Technical Service Employees‟ careers are governed by its Career Advancement Scheme which entitles an employee to the next higher grade after every five years irrespective of availability of vacancy or a post in the higher grade. The Petitioner joined in the Technical Service of ICAR in Grade T-II-3 and was placed in Grade T-5 by virtue of this scheme. He has been rightly granted the pay scale of Rs.6500-10500 which is the revised corresponding pay scale for technical service T-5. He is claiming the grade of Rs.8000- 13500 which is in the pay scale of grade T-6 and, therefore, the Ld. CAT was justified in arriving at a conclusion that the Petitioner is not entitled to the same.

"8. The applicant joined this Technical service of ICAR in grade T-3 and presently he is in grade T-5 by virtue of career advancement scheme. He has already been placed in a higher grade of Rs.2000-3500 w.e.f. 1.1.1986 by virtue of his being a holder of a Bachelor degree/ BVSc. And AH T.5 is admittedly not the entry grade of the Technical Service of ICAR.