ORISSA ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS SERVICE ASSOCIATION AND ANR. Vs. STATE OF ORISSA REPRESENTED THROUGH SECRETARY TO GOVT. OF ORISSA, IRRIGATION AND POWER DEPARTMENT AND ORS.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) DOES the denial of allowances to engineers serving under the Orissa State Electricity Board on deputation though discharging the same duties and working under similar hazardous conditions as the engineers on its own cadre violate the equality provisions contained in Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution of India ? This short nonetheless important question has been posed for an answer in this action. The fits, in brief, are:

(2.) WHEN Talcher Thermal Power Station was set up as a constituent of the Orissa State Electricity Board for the purpose of generating electrical energy from coal, engineers were brought on deputation from the Irrigation and Power Department of the Government. The total number of such posts was 299. With a view to having its own cadre of engineers who would ultimately run the power station, the Board constituted pursuant to a decision of the Government dated 19 -7 -1983, the Orissa Electricity Board Service (of Power Engineers of Thermal Generation) Regulation, 1984. The regulation provided the quantum of allowances payable to engineers. Option was thereafter called for from the deputationists -engineers serving under the Board to join the cadre. Though some volunteered to join, majority did not evince any desire.

(3.) BOTH the Board and the State of Orissa have justified the differential treatment on the ground that whereas the engineers on the cadre opted to join the cadre, the deputationists did not. The service conditions and psychological approach of both the categories are different.