SARVESH KUMAR Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) By filing the instant writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India the writ petitioners have prayed for a direction upon the respondent no.2 herein and /or its officers to fix the basic pay of the petitioners at Rs.29,000.00 at par with other Junior Engineering Assistants-IV.

(2.) In support of the instant writ petition Mr. Ahammed, learned advocate for the writ petitioners at the very outset draws attention of this Court to page no.35 i.e. the copy of the relevant advertisement as published by respondent no.2/ Oil Company for recruitment of Junior Engineering Assistant- IV (Production) vide post code 201. Admittedly, the present petitioners have been selected for the said post and they have been issued appointment letters for the said post of Junior Engineering Assistant-IV (Production) in the pay scale of Rs.11,900.00 - Rs.32,000.00 (pre-revised). It is pertinent to mention herein that such pay scale was mentioned in the aforementioned advertisement as published by respondent no.2/Oil Company. Drawing attention to page no.273 of the writ petition being the photo-copy of the pay slip of one Mr. Braj Mohan, a Junior Engineering Assistant-IV as well as to the subsequent pages wherein the pay slips of other employees of the respondent no.2-Oil Company have been annexed, it is contended that in those pay slips, the master basic of the said employees have been fixed at the rate of Rs.29,000.00 whereas in the pay slips of the present writ petitioners the master basic has been fixed at the rate of Rs.25,000.00.

(3.) It is contended further that the persons whose basic pay was fixed at the rate of 29,000/- were recruited in the self-same post i.e. in the post of Junior Engineering Assistant-IV by virtue of self same advertisement and also by virtue of self same recruitment process and in spite of the same two separate basic pays have been fixed in respect of the said employees and the present writ petitioners which is violative of Article 14 of the Constitution of India. Drawing attention to page no.279 of the writ petition it is contended that the writ petitioners have made representation before the respondent no.2/Oil Company for removing such discrepancy but under cover of its letter dtd. 29/7/2020 the respondent no.2/Oil company declined to concede with the request of the writ petitioners on the plea that in terms of long term Settlement as arrived at by and between respondent no.2/ Oil Company and the representatives of the Union of the Workmen of the said Oil Company, the workmen who had joined the respondent no.2/ Oil Company on or after 1/1/2017 and who are on the rolls of the Corporation as on 3/10/2019 their initial basic pay have been fixed at the rate of Rs.20,000.00 in Grade IV and those workmen who have joined after 3/10/2019 their basic pay have been fixed at minimum of pay scale i.e. at Rs.25,000.00.