DIWAKAR PRASAD Vs. NALANDA GRAMIN BANK

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In this writ petition, the petitioner is aggrieved by the order contained in letter No. STF/DP/0-14/1077/92 dated 30.7.1992 (Annexure-6) issued by the General Manager, Nalanda Gramin Bank, Biharsharif (hereinafter to be called as "the Bank"), by which his date of increment has been modified and extended from the 15th of January to the 9th of July of every succeeding year and consequently, the petitioner has been directed to refund the excess amount by way of salary withdrawn by him. He has further prayed to issue a writ in the nature of mandamus directing the respondent-Bank to give pay protection to him, so that his salary should not be less than his juniors.

(2.) In short, the relevant facts are that the petitioner, along with others, was appointed in the official cadre of the Bank in the year 1982 and joined the Bank on the 20th of May, 1982 in the pay-scale of Rs. 1,000-1,820.00. Accordingly, his date of increment was initially fixed in the month of May of the succeeding years. Some of the officers of the same batch joined the service of the Bank in January 1983 and their date of increment was fixed in January of the succeeding years. In the month of May 1983, the petitioner took leave without pay from the 21st of May, 1983 to the 11th of November, 1983 (i.e. 175 days) and, accordingly, the date of increment of the petitioner was shifted to the 12th of November in view of Regulation 52(3) of the Staff Service Regulations, 1980 of the Bank (hereinafter to be called as "the Regulations") which provides that "No pay and allowance admissible during the period of extraordinary leave and the period spent on such leave shall not count for increment."

(3.) In the year 1989, the pay-scale of the officials of the Bank was revised with effect from the 1st of January, 1986 and the petitioner along with his batch-mate, was placed in the pay-scale of Rs. 2,200-753,800-4,000.00. The date of increment, however, remained unchanged and as such due to the said revision, the salary of the officers of the 1982 batch became less than the salary of the officers who joined after the 1st of January, 1983. To avoid this anomaly with respect to those officers of the 1982 batch who joined before January 1983, decision was taken by the respondent-Bank to change their date of increment and it was thus shifted back to the 15th of January in the cases of all. Consequently, the petitioner drew his salary accordingly. However, in the case of the petitioner the respondent-Bank later issued the impugned order dated the 30th of July, 1992 contained in Annexure-6 fixing the 9th of July as due date of his increment.