JYOTSNA RANI DAS Vs. STATE OF TRIPURA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) HEARD Mr. B. N. Majumder, learned counsel appearing for the petitioner as well as Mr. S. Chakraborty, learned Addl. Govt. Advocate for the State-respondents.

(2.) THE short factual matrix leading to the filing of the present writ petition is that on 22. 04. 1987 the petitioner was served with an offer of appointment for the post of 'cook' by the Commandant CTI (HG and CD), Govt. of Tripura, Agartala, under his offer letter No. 167/cti/rsv-1/apptt. /tap-2/86, dated 22. 04. 1987. The petitioner accepted the said offer of appointment for the post of Cook and, accordingly, the respondent No. 3, Commandant CTI (HG andcd), Govt. of Tripura, was pleased to issued the appointment order No. 172-76/cti/87, dated 25. 04. 1987, for appointing the petitioner as Cook in the pay scale of Rs. 330-460/- (EB after 8th and 15th stages) plus other allowances as admissible under the Rules against the post of a Cook created for C. T. I. (HG and CD), Tripura. For easy reference, the appointment order dated 25. 04. 1987 is quoted below :-

(3.) ADMITTEDLY , the petitioner has been serving as Cook since the date of her appointment as Cook under the said order dated 25. 04. 1987 without any break till date in the CTI (HG and CD), Govt. of Tripura. Without giving any opportunity or without any prior notice, the Commandant CTI (HG and CD), Govt. of Tripura, issued an order No. 990-94/ CTI (HG and CD)/97, dated 20. 08. 1997, that the Commandant CTI (HG and CD) had done re-fixation of pay of the petitioner and the petitioner was reverted to the scale of pay of Rs. 775-1130/- w. e. f. 25. 04. 1987. By the same order dated 20. 08. 1997, a sum of Rs. 23,675/- said to have been overdrawn by the petitioner from 01. 01. 1988 to 20. 04. 1997, is to be recovered in 180 instalments from the month of September, 1997. On 3rd September, 1997, the Commandant CTI (HG and CD) issued another order vide No. 1051-55/ CTI (HG and CD)/97, which is almost repetition of the earlier order dated 20. 08. 1997 excepting that the amount of instalments to be recovered has been reduced to Rs. 127/- per month and the earlier order dated 20. 08. 1997 is treated to be cancelled. The petitioner also filed representation dated 27. 08. 1997 to the Commandant CTI (HG andcd) stating, inter alia, that she had not been given any opportunity to explain and/or she was not heard prior to issuance of the impugned order dated 03. 09. 1997 for refixation of her scale of pay and recovery of the alleged overdrawn payment. The petitioner also requested for the reasons for refixation of her salaries to the lower scale for the post of Grade-IV. The Commandant CTI (HG and CD) did not consider the representation as it was simply kept pending nor give any reply to the petitioner. The petitioner again preferred an appeal on different grounds and reasons to the Director General of Police, Govt. of Tripura, stating that the fixation of scale done by the Commandant CTI (HG and CD) is illegal, bad and arbitrary and also the action for recovering the excess amount alleged to have been drawn by the petitioner is also illegal inasmuch as the scale of pay of the petitioner for working as Cook had been revised by the competent authority as per the ROP Rules, 1988, whereunder the revised pay scale of the Junior Cook is Rs. 850-2130/- per month, which the petitioner enjoyed as Cook and also there was no fault on the part of the petitioner in enjoying the revised pay scale of the Junior Cook under the ROP Rules,1988. The petitioner being aggrieved by the said order dated 03. 09. 1997 issued by the Commandant CTI (HG andcd), demoting the petitioner to a lower pay scale and also for recovering the amount mentioned therein alleged to have been overdrawn by the petitioner, filed this writ petition.