STATE OF U.P. Vs. DHARMENDRA SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The special appeal arises from a judgment of the learned Single Judge dated 4 September 2013 allowing a batch of writ petitions filed under Article 226 of the Constitution including the writ petition<SLINK_NO>1</SLINK_NO> filed by the respondents. Accepting the submission which has been urged on behalf of the respondents, the learned Single Judge has declared a Government Order dated 17 September 2002 to be ultra vires and has directed the appellants to pay to the respondents their salary and allowances, in place of a stipend during the period when the respondents were undergoing training for appointment as Constables, in the police department of the State.

(2.) The respondents were appointed between 17 September 2002 and 2 December 2008. Prior to 1998, it is not in dispute that persons who were recruited as Constables, Sub Inspectors and Platoon Commanders were only entitled to the payment of a stipend during the period of training. On 8 June 1998, an Office Memorandum<SLINK_NO>2</SLINK_NO> was issued by which it was stipulated that persons who had been selected as Constables, Sub Inspectors and Platoon Commanders would be granted appointments upon which they would be entitled to salary and allowances while being posted on training. On 17 September 2002, a fresh OM was issued which, while amending the earlier OM, stipulated that during the course of the training, the trainees would be entitled only to the payment of a stipend and that these provisions would be applicable prospectively to all appointments which were to be made in future.

(3.) On 7 July 2003, an OM was issued by which it was provided that consequent upon the modification of the OM dated 8 June 1998, recoveries would be effected from those trainees who had been appointed between 8 June 1998 and 17 September 2002, of amounts which were paid in excess of the stipend which was admissible to them. This resulted in a batch of writ petitions being filed before this Court by persons who were recruited as Sub Inspectors in the Civil Police or Platoon Commanders in the Provincial Armed Constabulary as a result of a selection process which had commenced in 1999 and of which results were declared on 6 July 2001. Such persons were issued letters of appointment in terms of the OM dated 8 June 1998 and were sent on training during the course of which they were paid regular salary in the minimum of the pay scale together with other allowances. Their submission was that they were paid their salaries in accordance with the prevailing OM dated 8 June 1998 and should be not be made to suffer by ordering recoveries merely because the Finance Department had not granted its approval to the OM.