STATE OF TRIPURA Vs. DWIJENDRA HOME ROY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS writ appeal has arisen from the judgment dated 08. 08. 2000 passed by a learned Single Judge of this Court in W. P. (C) No. 491 of 1999. By that judgment the writ petition filed by the respondents herein was allowed with a direction that the writ petitioner No. 1, an Assistant Engineer, would get the pay scale of Rs. 10,650 -15,850/- for the period from 01. 01. 1999 to 30. 09. 1999 in accordance with the proviso (ix) under Rule 10 of the Tripura State Civil Services (Revision Pay) Rules, 1999 (for short 'rop, 1999' ).

(2.) WE have heard Mr. S. Deb, learned senior counsel, assisted by Mr. T. D. Majumder, learned Addl. Govt. Advocate for the State appellants and Mr. A. K. Bhowmik, learned senior counsel, assisted by Mr. S. Ghosh, learned counsel for the respondents.

(3.) THE writ petition was filed by Dwijendra Home Roy and All Tripura Diploma Engineers' Association claiming benefit of Career Advancement Scheme (for short 'cas') provided in Rule 10 of the ROP, 1999 for all the diploma Engineers, who were similarly situated like the first petitioner. The facts pleaded in the writ petition show that Shri Home Roy was appointed on 18. 06. 1963 as Overseer in the pay scale of Rs. 200-400/- in 1987 the Tripura Engineering Service Rules came into force. Mr. Home Roy and other similarly situated overseers were taken into the newly constituted cadre service. On 30. 03. 1989 by a memorandum of the finance Department , the post of Overseer was re-designated as Junior Engineer Grade-II (Diploma Engineer) and Junior Engineer Grade-I (Degree Engineer ). It was further provided that the Junior Engineer Grade-II on completion of four years of service would be Junior Engineer Grade-I w. e. f. 01. 01. 1986 when ROP, 1988 came into force. It was also provided that Diploma Engineer on completion of 22 years of service on 01. 01. 1986 would be directly re-designated as Assistant Engineer. By virtue of his memorandum dated 30. 03. 1989 of the State government in the Finance department, Mr. Home Roy, who completed more than 22 years of service on 01. 01. 1986 came to be Assistant Engineer w. e. f. that date in the revised pay scale of Rs. 2100-5000/ -. His pay was fixed in that revised pay scale under FR 22 (a) (i ). Then came the next revision of pay by ROP, 1999. It was given effect from 01. 01. 1996. In ROP, 1999 a scheme known as Career Advance Scheme (for short 'cas') was provided in Rule 10 for scale advancement by way of promotion or by time bound movement as per table in Annexure-A. Proviso (ix) to Rule 10 indicated that for the posts, which did not appear in Part 'b' and 'c' of the Tripura State Civil Services (Revision Pay) Rules, 1988 (for short 'rop, 1988) or for which graded scales were not prescribed, the holders of such posts on completion of prescribed number of years as on 01. 01. 1999 would move to the next higher scale and the pay would be fixed as per FR 22 (a) (i ). As the first petitioner completed 37 years of service in the post of Overseer, which was subsequently upgraded as Assistant Engineer on 01. 01. 1999, without any promotion, he came to be entitled to the next higher scale of Rs. 10,650-15,850/- on 01. 01. 1999 as per table in Annexure 'a' to the said ROP, 1999.