C SUBRAMANIAM Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) By this writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, Class III and IV employees of this Court seek a direction to the two respondents, namely (i) the Union of India through the Secretary, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions and (ii) the Registrar General of this Court, to adopt and implement the Assured Career Progression Scheme ( for short " ACP Scheme"), notified by the Government of India, vide their Office Memorandum dated 9 August 1999.

(2.) In the reply affidavit filed on behalf of the High Court, it is stated that upon consideration of the grievance of the petitioners, the Administrative Committee of the High Court had recommended that the ACP Scheme should be adopted and implemented as it had already been implemented in the Supreme Court as also the Subordinate Courts. To work out the modalities, a Screening Committee of Officers was constituted. The Screening Committee reported that till the pay scales, in which financial upgradation could be given to class IV and III employees who had put in 12 and 24 years of regular service, are decided, their cases cannot be processed. Thereafter, the matter was again considered by a Committee of three Judges. Taking note of the fact that the Supreme Court had implemented the ACP Scheme for its employees, the Committee was of the view that the High Court would be in a position to implement the Scheme on the pattern of Supreme Court only after the government sanctions the pay scales proposed by the High Court. In nut shell, the stand of the High Court is that it would implement the ACP Scheme as soon as sanction of the proposed pay scales is received from the Government.

(3.) In its affidavit, the first respondent i.e. Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Department of Personnel & Training, Government of India, has stated that the employees of the High Court enjoy special and different status under the Constitution and essentially it is for the High Court to evolve a suitable promotion scheme/career progression scheme or to adopt the ACP Scheme for its employees. It is averred that the relief, sought by the petitioners in the writ petition, can be considered only by the Administrative Wing of the High Court and the Central Government has no role to play in the matter. As regards the question of revision of the salaries of officers and service conditions of the employees of the High Court, it is pointed out that Bills had been introduced in the Rajya Sabha in the year 1994 to rectify certain anomalies, which had crept in the pay scales of the employees of the Supreme Court and the High Court. The said Bills have since been passed by the Rajya Sabha in March 2001 and the same have been referred to the Lok Sabha for further action.