SANJAY ANANT Vs. MADHYA PRADESH GENERATING COMPANY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Assailing the order dtd. 25/10/2023 passed by the learned Single Judge in dismissing Writ Petition No.10997 of 2017, the writ petitioner is in appeal.

(2.) It is the case of the petitioner that he is a diploma holder in Mechanical Engineering and entered into service of the respondent-department on 12/12/1980 as a diploma trainee in erstwhile M.P. State Electricity Board (MPSEB). He was given regular appointment on the post of Junior Engineer w.e.f. 12/3/1982. He completed AMIE which is equivalent to Bachelor Degree in Engineering and he was selected being a departmental candidate as a graduate trainee by order dtd. 24/7/1990. By order dtd. 16/5/1991, he was appointed as Assistant Engineer. Thereafter, he was promoted to the post of Executive Engineer and he is still working as Executive Engineer but is getting the pay scale of Superintending Engineer under the scheme of Higher Pay Scale. The M.P. Electricity Board has bifurcated the companies and under the provisions of the Electricity Act, 2003, there is protection given to the employees of successive companies that after their services were allocated to the successive companies, their service conditions which were applicable in MPSEB will not change to the detriment of their interest. The petitioner obtained degree of MBA (Finance) in December 2003 after taking due permission from MPSEB. He submitted an application for grant of two advance increments. The same was rejected by order dtd. 20/10/2016 which is the order impugned in the writ petition.

(3.) It is the case of the petitioner that in terms of Sec. III of Part B/Establishment, the employees are entitled to two advance increments on obtaining Post Graduate degree qualification in Engineering/Management/Finance/Computers or pass final examination of ICWA/CA/CS or acquire qualification of M.Phil Ph.D. after fulfilling necessary conditions. The petitioner has obtained the qualification of MBA (Finance) from IGNOU. Therefore, he has obtained the Post Graduate degree qualification, hence, entitled to two advance increments.