DILIP KUMAR MEHTA Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This application has been filed for quashing Clause-6 of resolution of the State Government in the department of Agriculture dated 11.7.2003 (Annexure 1), whereby the Routine Clerk, Assistant, Personal Assistant and Section Officer working in Rajendra Agricultural University have not been treated at par with the employees of the State Government in the Secretariat for the purpose of grant of scale of pay.

(2.) Facts lie in a narrow compass. Petitioners are Routine Clerk, Assistant, Personal Assistant and Section Officer working in the Rajendra Agricultural University, hereinafter referred to as the University. The University was established by an Act of the Legislature of the State, namely, Rajendra Agricultural University Act, 1971. At the time of establishment of the University the ministerial staff like Routine Clerk, Assistant, Personal Assistant and Section Officer employed by the State Government and posted at Secretariat, were sent on deputation. Hence, the pay scale and service conditions of the employees, although working in University were kept at par with the Secretariat employees. The State Government by its letter dated 24th March 1975 reiterated that the pay scale and service conditions of the employees deputed to the University from the State Government shall be the same and they will continue to draw their pay and other allowance as admissible to the employees of the State Government. It is common ground that the scale of pay as admissible to the Routine Clerk, Assistant, Personal Assistant and Section Officer as admissible to the employees of the State Government in the Secretariat were given to such category of employees prior to the issuance of the impugned resolution. Whether such employees of the University were getting the scale of pay at par with the employees of the Secretariat with the approval of the State Government or not is disputed but the fact remains that they were getting salary in the scale of pay equivalent to the scale of pay of such category of employees working in the Secretariat.

(3.) It is relevant here to state that by the impugned resolution all the Clerks working in the scale of pay of Rs. 975-1540 have been classified as Lower Division Clerk and the Assistant working in the scale of pay of Rs. 1200-1800 as Upper Division Clerk and granted salary in the scale of pay of Rs. 4000-6000. The nomenclature of the post of Section Officer has been changed to Office Superintendent in the scale of pay of Rs. 5500-9000 and the Personal Assistant classified as Stenographer Grade II in the scale of Rs. 5000-8000.