S K MUKHERJEE Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The Director of Civil Defence, West Bengal, by Order No. 4729-HCD dated 24th July, 1965 appointed the petitioner on a temporary basis on the post of Staff Officer-cum-Instructor in the Directorate of Civil Defence, West Bengal in the scale of Rs. 175-325 plus usual allowances. The petitioner claims to be a member of the Civil Defence Corps. On this premise he contends that his case is governed by the Civil Defence Act, 1968 (Act No. 27 of 1968), hereinafter called 'the Act'. The said Act was brought into force with effect from 10th July, 1968. It may be advantageous to notice the relevant provisions of the said Act at this stage.

(2.) The Act was enacted to make provision for civil defence and for matters connected therewith. It extends to the whole of India. The expression 'Civil Defence Corps' has been defined to mean the corps formed wholly or mainly to meet the needs of civil defence, including an organisation deemed to be a corps under Section 4(1). That sub-section provides for the constitution of a Civil Defence Corps. It reads as under:

(3.) We may now briefly state the petitioner's case (supra). The Civil Defence Organisation was set up in India in 1965 under the Defence of India Act and was later converted into a Civil Defence Corps under the Civil Defence Act, 1968. Accordingly the Civil Defence Organisation of West Bengal was converted into a Civil Defence Corps by Notification dated 10th July, 1968 and thereupon the petitioner became a member of the said Corps. He also claims to be the Secretary General of the Civil Defence Officers' Guild, India, a society registered under the West Bengal Societies Registration Act, 1961. The petitioner points out that the Central Government in compliance with the Calcutta High Court's Order in Civil Rule No. 6221(W) of 1983 took over complete control of the Mobile Civil Emergency Force (MCEF) with effect from 1st April, 1992 under office order dated 26th February, 1992 whereby existing employees of MCEF, Calcutta became holders of civil posts under the Government of India and derived all the benefits admissible to such employees. Since the petitioner and others did not receive the same benefit as they were not covered under the said order there was hostile discrimination between two groups of the same organisation in total violation of the equality clause in Article 14 of the Constitution. According to the petitioner since the Civil Defence Act, 1968, is a Central Act and extends to the whole of India including West Bengal, it is incumbent on the Central Government to regulate the recruitment and conditions of service of persons appointed in the Civil Defence Organisation all over the country by making appropriate provisions in the rules or regulations so that every employee is governed by a uniform set of service conditions. Since the State Governments are laying down service conditions de hors the rules and regulations under the Act there is total lack of uniformity which has resulted in the petitioner being discriminated in matters of pay, promotion, transfer, etc. Being aware that it has no power to frame regulations, the State of West Bengal resorted to obtaining undertakings from employees who desired to avail of the benefit of its regulations and those who were not prepared to furnish such undertakings were denied the benefits which introduced two sets of service conditions for employees working in the same organisation. It is said that members of the Guild like the petitioner are being victimised for their refusal to sign the undertaking. Thus the situation is that employees governed by State regulations on the strength of undertakings stand on a different footing from those who have refused to give such undertakings and both these classes taken together stand on a different footing from MCEF employees within the organisation governed by Central Government regulations. This, contends the petitioner, is clearly violative of Articles 14, 16 and 21 of the Constitution. The petitioner, therefore, seeks in the main the following two reliefs: