SHESHADEV PRADHAN Vs. CHANDRA PRAKASH JAIN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioners are serving as teachers in the Talcher Thermal High School and Primary Schools at Talcher Thermal in the district of Angul. The schools were owned and run by the Orissa State Electricity Board and ultimately upon vesting of T.T.P.S. in N.T.P.C., all educational institutions of T.T.P.S. were transferred to N.T.P.C. The petitioners and some others approached this Court in O.J.C. No. 13155 of 1998 alleging discrimination meted out to them by Office Order dated 21.8.1998 with regard to pay scale, allowances, benefits and other terms and conditions of service, more specifically, Clause 1.2.1. of the Office Order. This Court, by order dated 5.3.1999, disposed of the writ application in the following terms :

(2.) THE opposite parties in their counter affidavit seem to have taken the, stand that the orders have been complied with and the necessary rules and regulations have been framed keeping in view Section 11 of the T.T.P.S. Act and the Notification has been issued. This fact was seriously disputed by the learned counsel for the petitioners. By order dated 8.10.2004, this Court allowed the opposite parties to file additional affidavit and to take such further action as is necessary for due compliance of the order passed in the writ petition. Pursuant to the order, an additional affidavit has been filed by the opposite parties on 7.12.2004. In Paragraph 7 thereof, it has been stated that taking the totality of the circumstances into consideration, the matter was examined further by N.T.P.C. and a fresh order No. 045/HR -ER/13614 dated 3.12.2004 has been issued. The teaching staffs have already received the aforesaid office order. The endorsement/fixation orders of the 28 individual teachers are under process and will be shortly issued.

(3.) SRI S. K. Das, learned counsel appearing for the petitioners, however, has submitted that the office order fixing the terms and conditions of the teaching staffs vide Annexure C/1 is not in consonance with Section 11 of the Talcher Thermal Power Station (Transfer and Acquisition) Act, 1994, since the petitioners have been given pre -revised scales of pay, which is discriminatory. Referring to the scale of pay of certain other staffs like Peon and Office Assistants, the learned counsel for the petitioners submits that the salaries fixed for teachers are less than the salaries given to the Clerks and even Peons and the Management has fixed such scale to humiliate the teachers. A perusal of Annexure -5 to the additional affidavit filed by the petitioners, prima facie, shows that the salaries allowed to the teachers like the petitioners are less than the salary allowed to some other employees either of the same or lower grade. This fact however is seriously disputed by Sri Jayant Das, learned senior counsel for the opposite parties. Whether there is disparity in the scales of pay allowed to the petitioners or not is not the subject matter of the present proceeding, since it is a proceeding under the Contempt of Courts Act for alleged violation of the Court's order. The direction of this Court was for framing the conditions Of service keeping in view Section 11 of the Acquisition Act.