ANDHRA PRADESH POWER DIPLOMA ENGINEERS ASSOCIATION GENERAL Vs. ANDHRA PRADESH STATE ELECTRICITY BOARD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioners in these six writ petitions are the employees of the Andhra Pradesh State Electricity Board belonging to various categories. W.P. No. 9772/83 is filed by "Andhra Pradesh Power Diploma Engineers Association" Similarly, W.P. No. 12298/84 is preferred by the A.P. State Electricity Board Employees Union. The other four writ petitions are filed by individual employees. The grievance, however, is common, and arises from the manner in which the revised pay scales were fixed under B.P.Ms. No. 878, dated 5/10/1981 as modified by Board memo dated 11/10/1983.

(2.) On 5/10/1981, a Memorandum of Settlement was arrived at and signed by the management and two Employees Unions under Section 18(1) of the Industrial Disputes Act, read with Rule 64 of the A.P. Industrial Disputes Rules. Under this settlement, the Unions agreed to accept the offer of the management with regard to pay scales, quantum of Dearness Allowance, House Rent Allowance, City Compensatory Allowance, and fitment benefits and the method of fixation of pay in the revised pay scales, as detailed in Annexures I and II to the said settlement. The HRA and CCA were agreed to be paid at the rates obtaining in the Government. Paragraph 2 of the settlement related to "principles of fixation of pay and allowances." It reads thus : "The pay of an employee will be fixed in the new scale at a point appropriate to his service in the pre-Dearness Allowance merged scales on point to point fixation. He will be given additionally three increments and his new pay will be as follows :- His pay in the new scale plus fixed D.A. and Variable D.A. at 2% if the pay plus fixed D.A. is above Rs. 500.00 and 2 1/2% if the pay plus fixed D.A. is below Rs. 500.00 for every 8 points of increase above cost of living index figure of 392. The fixed D.A. will count for all purposes of calculation of D.A., H.R.A., C.C.A., and O.C.A., and other allowances given on percentage basis. It will also count for terminal benefits treating it as basic pay..". Then follow certain details with respect to Dearness Allowance, Variable Dearness Allowance and stagnation increments. The settlement further provided :

(3.) In pursuance of the second-settlement, the Board issued Memo. No. DM(IR)/PO2/3/-1/83/2, dated 11/10/1983. Paragraph 2 of this Memo refers to the fact that, in some cases where seniors in a particular category have been promoted to the next higher category earlier to their juniors and the pay scales have been revised subsequently, the fixation of pay has resulted in the junior continuing in the lower category drawing a pay higher than the senior when such junior is promoted to higher category. The operative portion is in paragraph 3, which reads as follows :-