(1.) Leave granted.
(2.) Whether final result of a case filed by a public servant with regard to his service conditions is dependent on the arbitrary choice of the State and/or its agencies/instrumentalities to prosecute the matter before the higher Courts is one of the questions which would require consideration in these appeals filed against order dated 16.10.2010 of the Division Bench of the Delhi High Court whereby the writ petitions filed by the appellants questioning the correctness of order dated September 12, 2008 passed by the Central Administrative Tribunal, Principal Bench (for short, 'the Tribunal') were dismissed. The other question which calls for determination is whether Non Practising Allowance (NPA) payable to the doctors employed in Central Health Services, the Railways and other Departments of the Government, who retired from service prior to 1.1.1996 is to be added to their basic pay for calculation of pension payable to them.
(3.) The appellants are the doctors or the legal representatives of the deceased doctors, who were employed in the Central Health Services, Government of India or the Railways and were paid NPA as part of their monthly pay in lieu of private practice, availability of less promotional avenues and late entry in the service. Initially, NPA was paid at a fixed rate commensurate with the rank of the doctors and their pay scale. The same formula was adopted by successive Pay Commission. The 5th Pay Commission revised the formula of calculating NPA and it was made 25% of the basic pay of a Government doctor. The recommendations made by the 5th Pay Commission on this issue are contained in para 52.16 of its report, which is reproduced below: