JAGHNATH Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This petition under Article 32 of the Constitution has been filed by Prahalad Singh claiming that he and other similarly placed Compositors working in the Government of India Presses all over India are entitled to the status and salary of Compositors, Grade I in the ",highly skilled" category with effect from January 1, 1966. The said relief is claimed on the sole ground that one T. R. Thakur has already been given Grade I in the "highly skilled" category as a result of the Judgment in his favour given by the Himachal Pradesh High Court. The Writ, Petition (C.W. 62/69) filed by T. R. Thakur was allowed by the learned single Judge of the High Court on May 21, 1971 and Letters Patent Appeal against the said judgment was dismissed on, May 9, 1979. The High Court hold that the Categorisation as "highly skilled" and "skilled" on the basis of seniority alone was unreasonable and discriminatory. No special leave petition against the judgment of the High Court was brought to this Court and as such the judgment has become final.

(2.) Prahalad Singh and others have claimed that they are entitled to the benefit of the judgment given by the High Court in Thakur's case (supra). According to them said judgment is applicable in principle to all the compositors whether they were parties before the High Court or not. This petition came for hearing before a Bench of this Court consisting of R. S. Pathak, CJI, M. N. Venkatachalia, J. The Bench in its order dated April 28, 1989 (reported in AIR 1989 SC 1563, para 1) observed as under:-

(3.) The facts which led to, the filing of the writ petition by Thakur are as under: Prior to January 1, 1966, there was one grade of Compositors (Rs. 110-180) in the Government of India Presses. In the year 1963 a committee called "The Committee for Categorisation of the Government of India Press Workers" was constituted to review the classificition,'of posts of industrial workers in the Government of India printing presses. The said Committee, inter alia, made the following recommendations: