Sudhendu Bhattacharjee and 23 Ors v. The State of Assam and 20 Ors

ORDER Date : 26/02/2024 Suman Shyam, J

This intra-court appeal is directed against the order dated 15/09/2023 passed by the learned Single Judge in WP(C) No. 4907/2023 whereby, a direction was issued for deleting the names of the present appellants, who were the petitioner nos. 2 to 25 in the writ petition, on the ground that they had a separate cause of action as compared to the writ petitioner no. 1, viz. Sri Siddhartha Sankar Chakraborty, thus permitting only the petitioner no.1 to pursue the writ petition. The facts of the case, in a nutshell, are that the present appellants, and Sri Siddhartha Sankar Chakraborty, are all serving as Senior Assistants and posted in different Branches coming under the establishment of the District Commissioner (erstwhile Deputy Commissioner), Cachar, Silchar. Pursuant to the Revision of Pay (RoP) Rules, 2017 (herein after referred to as the Rules of 2017), benefit of increased pay scales was extended to all these Senior Assistants. However, by notification dated 04/05/2022 issued under Memo No. CPA.3/2017/PF/Pt-II/34 by the Personal Accounts Section in the establishment of the District Commissioner, Cachar, the pay increment granted to the said employees were withdrawn with effect from 01/04/2016. Aggrieved thereby, the 25 writ petitioners including the present appellants had approached this Court by filing the aforementioned writ petition. The learned Single Judge was of the view that since all the writ petitioners were drawing different pay scales, hence, they had separate cause of action for approaching this Court. It was held that since the writ petitioner no. 1, viz. Sri Siddhartha Sankar Chakraborty had sworn the affidavit in support of the writ petition, hence, save and except the petitioner no. 1, none of the other 24 writ petitioners could maintain the writ petition. Having held as Page No.# 12/13 above, by the impugned order dated 15/09/2023, the names of the writ petitioner nos. 2 to 25 i.e. the present appellants were directed to be deleted from the array of parties. While arriving at the aforesaid conclusion, the learned Single Judge had also observed that the writ petitioners had paid Court fee only for one petitioner. Assailing the impugned order dated 15/09/2023, Mr. Purkayastha, learned counsel for the appellants has argued that all the writ petitioners including the present appellants were serving in similar capacity, under the different Branches coming within the establishment of the District Commissioner, Cachar. They were aggrieved by the common order dated 04/05/2022, by means of which, the increment earlier granted to them under the RoP Rules of 2017, was revoked. As such, this is not a case of separate cause of action but was a clear case where there was a common cause of action. As such, according to the learned counsel, the learned Single Judge has erred in law in directing the deletion of the names of the writ petitioner nos. 2 to 25. Contending that the writ petition is still pending before the learned Single Judge, Mr. Purkayastha has prayed for setting aside the impugned order dated 15/09/2023 and to issue a direction for hearing of the pending writ petition on merit. The learned departmental counsel as well as the learned counsel for the respondent no. 21 have submitted in one voice that they would have no objection if the relief prayed for in this appeal is granted by this Court and the writ petition is directed to be heard on merit. From a careful examination of the materials on record, we find that the challenge made in the writ petition was in respect of the notification dated 04/05/2022, by means of which, the pay benefit given to all the appellants/writ petitioners was revoked by a common order. Under the circumstances, even if it is a fact that the appellants who are working in different Branches in the establishment of the District Commissioner, Cachar, are drawing different pay scales, even then, we are of the view that they did not have separate cause of action for approaching this Court. Rather, we are of the view that the writ petitioners/appellants have a common cause of action, which could be agitated in a writ petition jointly filed by them. We, therefore, find sufficient force in the submission of Mr. Purkayastha, that the appellants/writ petitioners have a common cause of action for Page No.# 13/13 approaching this Court by filing WP(C) No. 4907/2023. Situated thus, we are of the unhesitant opinion that the learned Single Judge was not correct in issuing the impugned order dated 15/09/2023 with a direction to delete the names of the petitioner nos. 2 to 25 from the array of parties in the writ petition. Consequently, this writ appeal stands allowed. The impugned order dated 15/09/2023 stands set aside. This writ appeal is disposed of by providing that the writ petition being WP(C) 4907/2023, be heard on merit and disposed of with a reasoned order, as expeditiously as possible.

JUDGE CHIEF JUSTICE

sukhamay Comparing Assistant

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