STATE OF MAHARASHTRA Vs. HONOURABLE MR M H KANIA THE HONBLE THE CHIEF JUSTICE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) IN this appeal, the State is challenging an order passed by the learned single Judge allowing Writ Petition No. 1526 of 1986 whereby respondent Nos. 2 to 17 who are all in the category of the lowest self drawing gazetted officers on the Original Side in this High Court, have been equated with their counter parts on the Appellate Side, namely, the Assistant Registrars.

(2.) AT the time of the filing of the petition, the respondents were in the pay scale of Rs. 650 1250, which was the same as that of Senior Superintendents and the Shirestedars, though their function was comparable to that of the Assistant Registrars on the Appellate Side. The Assistant Registrars were in the pay scale of Rs. 1000-1500. Therefore, they had contended that they were being equated with unequals (i. e. Shirestedars/senior Suprintendents) and they were not being equated with their equals. That is how they had sought a writ directing the Government to grant them the pay scale on par with that of the Assistant Registrars on the Appellate Side.

(3.) IT appears that some time in 1965, the Government had, in principle, accepted parity in pay scales for the High Court officers with that of the officers in the Mantralaya. By virtue of the recommendations of the Badkas Pay Commission, the Government granted parity in part, upto the level of Superintendents, and thus non-gazetted employees were granted the same pay scales as their counterparts in the Mantralaya. This point was agitated before the Bhole Pay Commission, which, in 1977, recommended parity only upto the level of Assistant Registrars and the equivalent posts on the Original Side in the High Court. However, officers holding higher posts, both on the Original Side and the Appellate Side, were not given parity of pay scales as are paid to their counterparts in the Mantralaya, viz. , Deputy Secretary, Additional Secretary. Secretary etc. Similarly, it was not clarified before the Bhole Pay Commission that certain categories of officers, such as the 2nd Assistant Master, 1st Assistant to the Official Assignee, 2nd Assistant to the Court Receiver, 3rd Assistant Master and the Associates were discharging functions similar to that of the Assistant Registrar on the Appellate Side, though such equation could have been legitimately done by the Chief Justice himself. This led to an anomalous situation whereby these officers i. e. the respondents came to be equated with non-gazetted officers and continued to get lower pay scale of Rs. 680-1250 as the Superintendents.