SUBHAS CHANDRA BARMAN Vs. STATE OF TRIPURA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner has challenged a communication dated 20th August, 2018 as at Annexure-11 to the petition and further prayed that his pay may be upgraded at par with the respondent No.7 who happens to be his junior.

(2.) Brief facts are that the petitioner joined the duty in Tripura State Rifles as a Rifleman (GD) on 02.11.1998. As against this, respondent No.7 who is admittedly his junior, joined the service in the same cadre on 24.12.1998. Thereafter, the career graphs of the petitioner and respondent No.7 took slightly different turns. Reference to these relevant events would be made later. For the time being to notice the grievance of the petitioner, he was drawing less pay than the respondent No.7 for the period between November, 2001 till 01.07.2010 and thereafter again during the period between 10.02.2014 till 01.07.2016. The petitioner made a representation to the department on 07.07.2018 seeking removal of the anomaly in the pay. This representation came to be rejected by impugned order dated 20.08.2018 on the ground that the case of the petitioner does not fall within the rules pertaining to stepping up of pay. Thereupon, the petitioner has approached this Court.

(3.) The respondents have appeared and filed reply in which the entire history of the pay fixations of the petitioner and respondent No.7 has been given and which reads as under :