UNION OF INDIA Vs. KULWANT RAI GUPTA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Whether the decision of a Tribunal can be implemented by imposing any condition, is the question involved in this writ petition.

(2.) The respondents herein were working as Junior Engineers upon re-designation. They were promoted as Superintendent (E/M) Grade II in the revised scale of Rs. 1400-2300. The holders of the said posts claimed parity with the Junior Engineers of CPWD wherefor Original Applications being No. OA 1337, 1364 to 1375/94 had been filed before the Bangalore Bench. The said applications w,ere allowed. The petitioners were directed to grant higher scale of pay as paid to the Junior Engineers in CPWD bearing the scale of pay of Rs. 1640-2900 as and when they complete five years of service in the grade w.e.f. 1st January 1986 and upon completion of 15 years to the pay scale of Rs.2000-3500 w.e.f. 1st January 1991. The petitioners herein filed an application for grant of Special Leave before the Apex Court which was dismissed by an order dated 9th April 1996. The OAs filed by the Superintendent Grade II in the afore-mentioned directions for the similar reliefs were also allowed. It is not in dispute that the respondents, while implementing the directions of the Central Administrative Tribunal, Bangalore Bench by letter dated 24th April 1996 allowed the said scales of pay to all the similarly situated persons. Sanction had also been accorded of higher scales to individual Superintendents by a presidential letter dated 25th April 1996 as a result whereof the respondents became entitled to the scale of Rs. 1640-2900 after five years as they were recruited as Superintendents in 1983 on the ground that they are entitled to the first higher scale of Rs. 1640-2900 w.e.f. 19lh August 1998. The said benefit was extended by an order dated 30th September 1996. The said employees were not subjected to any departmental examination. Employees similarly situated who had completed 10 years of service had been given both the scales of pay after a gap of 5 and 15 years respectively. Furthermore, the pay of the respondents herein had also been revised as per the recommendations of the Fifth Central pay Commission w.e.f. 1st January 1996. According to the respondents, they became entitled for second upgradation of pay of Rs.2000-3500 upon completion of 15 years of service but they were denied the same. It is not in dispute that the Superintendents I and II had also been redesignated as Junior Engineers. The respondents, however, had been deprived from the second revision on the ground that they did not pass the MES departmental examination and as such, they are not entitled to the said scale of pay. Questioning the same, the Original Applications were filed which, by reason of the impugned judgment, have been allowed.

(3.) Before the learned Tribunal, an order of Jammu & Kashmir High Court was produced wherein it was held that the Grade I and Grade II having been merged, the holders of the posts were entitled as a matter of right to be redesignated as Superintendents. The learned Tribunal directed: