DELHI DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY Vs. JAI SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS appeal under Letters Patent has been preferred by delhi Development Authority (DDA) impugning the decision of a Single judge of this Court whereby the DDA was directed to apply the assured Career Progression Scheme (ACP of 1999) to the respondents in terms of circular dated 14th October, 1999, issued by the DDA.

(2.) THE facts necessary for the decision of this appeal are as follows:-The DDA had recruited the respondents as Stenographers between January, 1980 and March, 1981. At that time, the DDA had one cadre of, "stenographers", in the pay scale of Rs. 330-700. Later on, from Ist January, 1986, this cadre was bifurcated into two cadres, namely, "stenographers" and "senior Stenographers". The newly formed cadre of Stenographers was assigned the pay scale of Rs. 330-560 while that of Senior Stenographers was given the pay scale of rs. 425-700. This is stated to have been done to implement the recommendations of the Fourth Pay Commission. In this context, the report of the Committee constituted by the DDA to go into the question of adoption in the DDA of all the orders of the Government of india relating to the Fourth Pay Commission becomes relevant. This committee came to be appointed consequent upon a resolution passed by the DDA adopting the entire package of recommendations of the Fourth Pay Commission in respect of group B, C and D employees of the Central Government as accepted by the Government of India, for similar employees of the DDA. The Committee felt that the basic anomaly in accepting the recommendations was in connection with the pay-scale of Stenographers in the DDA. After examining the scales of Stenographers in the Government of India and also the method of recruitment thereto, it found that as against two scales of Stenographers in the government of India, in the DDA, there was only one cadre of Stenographers and that the existing scale of stenographers in the DDA was a combination of the two scales of stenographers that existed in the Government of India. The committee felt that since there was no pre-revised scale in the government of India corresponding to the DDA's scale of Rs. 330-700 for Stenographers, it found it difficult in relating this existing scale of stenographers in the DDA with the revised scales that were to be adopted in terms of the aforesaid resolution of the DDA. It also noticed two other prominent variations in the scale of the stenographers in the DDA as compared to the two scales of pay admissible to Stenographers in the Central Government. They were;

(3.) AT the time when the respondents were initially recruited to the post of Stenographers, the next promotion, to which they would have been entitled, was to the post of Private Secretary. It is nobody's case that the respondents have in fact been promoted to that post at any time up to now. We also note that the initial pay-scale of Rs. 330-700, to which the respondents were recruited, was revised from time to time only on the basis of recommendation of the various Pay Commissions and on receipt of orders from the Ministry of urban Development and in fact they had never been granted any promotion at any point of time and no such entry had been made in their service records.