SURESH CHANDRA TEWARI Vs. STATE OF U P

JUDGEMENT

(1.) BRIJESH Kamar, J. In all the writ petitions mentioned above, common questions are involved, hence they have been heard together and are also being disposed of by a common judgment.

(2.) THE petitioners, in the above noted writ petitions, except writ petition No. 1502 (S/s) of 1992 filed by the State (Engineer-in-Chief. Irrigation Department, V. P. v. Makrand Singh, are part-time tube-well operators, who have prayed for issue of a writ of mandamus commanding the opposite parties to pay them in the regular scale of pay which is admissible and is being paid to full-time tube-well operator. A prayer for quashing the notification, dated 20-2-1992 (contained in Annexure-1 to writ petition No. 3558 (S/s) of 1992 has also been made, by which their nomenclature has been changed from part-time tube- well operator to tube-well assistants and an honoraria of Rs, 550 per month has been fixed in lieu of pay. It has been prayed that their services may be regularised on the post of tube-well operators.

(3.) ACCORDING to the petitioners, nature of their work is the same as that of the regular tube-well operators. They are also equally qualified. ACCORDING to the petitioner, the condition of duty hours that part-time tube-well operators were to work only two and a half hours a day, is only a condition on paper; they have to work for the whole day as the irrigation is dependent upon the availability of electricity. Therefore, whenever, electricity is available, they are required and called upon to operate the tube-wells. The amount of labour put in by them is the same as put in by the regular full-time tube- well operator, on the basis of the submissions made above, they claim their regular appointment as tube-well operators and the scale of pay as revised and paid to full-time tube-well operators.