Amal Kanti Baruah and 33 Ors v. The Union of India and 2 Ors

ORDER

29-08-2023 Heard Mr. B. P. Borah, learned counsel for the petitioners and Ms. R. Devi, learned Central Government Counsel for the respondent Nos. 1, 4 & 5. Also heard Ms. S. Todi, learned Standing counsel, NEEPCO for the respondent Nos. 2 & 3.

¶2Notice in this case was issued on 30.08.2013.

¶3By order dated 23.05.2016, the Department of Public Enterprise represented by the Principal Secretary, Department of Public Enterprise, Ministry of Heavy Industry and Public Enterprise, Government of India, New Delhi and the Ministry of Finance represented by the Principal Secretary to the Government of India, Ministry of Finance, New Delhi were impleaded as party respondent Nos. 4 & 5, respectively, in this writ petition.

¶4The petitioners 33 in numbers herein are the executive employees of the North Eastern Electric Power Corporation Limited (NEEPCO, in short). But from the cause title of this petition, it is seen that after Sl. No. 27 of the petitioners, the name at Sl. No. 28 was dropped and again it started from Sl. No. 29 to Sl. No. 34.

¶5Mr. Borah, learned counsel for the petitioners submits that for the last 5 years, the petitioners did not contact him and as such, he does not have any up-to-date information regarding the claim of the petitioners made in this petition.

¶6As per the promotion policy of the respondent NEEPCO, the Supervisor Category is divided into Page No.# 5/6 three categories, i.e., 'S1', 'S2' and 'S3', whereas the Executive Cadre is divided into nine posts, i.e., 'E1' to 'E9'. In the respondent NEEPCO, 'S' cadre is the feeder cadre to the 'E' cadre category.

¶7As per the revised pay scale, fixed vide order dated 01.01.1997, the scale of pay of the feeder cadre category, i.e., of 'S1', 'S2' and 'S3' were found to be higher than the promotional posts of 'E1', 'E2' and 'E2A' etc.

¶8The respondent NEEPCO in its next pay revision dated 01.01.2007 revised the Grade Pay Scales of various categories w.e.f. 01.01.2007 and it maintained the pay scale parity of junior and senior employees, however, the anomaly with regard to the pay scales of 'E1' to 'E2A' made during 1997 revision remain undecided.

¶9Though the petitioners filed their several representations before the authorities concerned, the respondents in the NEEPCO did not consider the same. As such, the petitioners with the issues – (i) whether the action of the respondent authorities are arbitrary, illegal and discriminatory, (ii) whether a promotional post can carry a scale lower than the feeder cadre and (iii) whether the employees of a Government undertaking co-operation can be discriminated in the matter of pay scale vis-à-vis the employees of the other corporation, preferred this writ petition on 27.08.2013 praying amongst others for a direction to the respondent authorities in the NEEPCO to modify/rectify the fixation of the revised scale of pay of the employees of Grade – 'E1' to 'E2A' that is lower than the scale of pay of the employees of categories 'S1' and 'S3' under the 1997 revised scale of pay and to re-fix the scale of pay of the petitioners under the 2007 revised scale of pay.

¶10The respondents in the Department of Public Enterprises on 14.01.1999 by an Office Memorandum issued the guidelines for the Sixth Round of Wage Negotiations in Public Sector Enterprises w.e.f. 01.01.1997 which inter alia stated that it has to be ensured that the negotiated wages would not come in conflict with the wages revision of officers and non-unionised supervisors of Public Enterprise. Further, the Department of Public Enterprise, Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises issued guidelines of revision of pay and other pay related matters and implementation of the same stating that its rise would be made by the administrative department of the Ministry of CPSE concerned.

¶11To sort out the pay anomaly of its employees, the respondent NEEPCO by order dated

17.01.2017 constituted one committee following the specification of the Department of Public Enterprises and as per the recommendation of the said committee, the anomaly cases of the Page No.# 6/6 petitioner Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4 , 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 17, 18, 19, 20, 22, 24, 25, 30, 31, 32, 33 and 34 have already been settled.

¶12With regard to the petitioner Nos. 5, 16, 21, 26, 27 and 29 are concerned, the committee constituted by the respondent NEEPCO on 17.01.2017, could not pass any order pertaining to them as they did not apply for stepping up of their pay scales, like their counter parts of other petitioners, noted above.

¶13With regard to the petitioner No. 15, the said committee constituted on 17.01.2017 did not consider his case as he had already availed the benefits of stepping up of benefits w.e.f. 20.06.1989.

¶14Similarly, with regard to stepping up of the petitioner No. 23 was also not considered as he had applied for stepping up of his pay scale with reference to his senior employees.

¶15The petitioners did not confront with the additional affidavit-in-opposition filed by the NEEPCO on 12.03.2018, which accordingly proved that the claims of the petitioners made herein have been taken care of by the respondent NEEPCO through its constituted committee on 17.01.2017 as noted above and that the petitioners are no longer aggrieved.

¶16Since the respondent authorities in the NEEPCO have already considered the cases of the petitioners as noted above and removed the anomalies with regard to their pay scales in terms of the additional affidavit of the respondent NEEPCO filed on 12.03.2018, the petitioners had already got their relief, as prayed for in this petition.

¶17Accordingly, this writ petition with the above observation stands disposed of.

JUDGE Comparing Assistant

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