PATNA HIGH COURT MINISTERIAL OFFICERS ASSOCIATION, RANCBI BENCLI, RANCHI Vs. THE STATE BIHAR AND OTHERS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This writ application is for appropriate direction commanding upon the respondents to give the members of the petitioner the same scale of Rs. 850 -1360 as is given to all Graduate Assistants working in different departments of the State of Bihar pursuant to the recommendation of the 4th Pay Revision Committee. The petitioner is an Association of the Non -Gazetted ministerial staff of the Patna High Court Ranchi Bench. They are appointed by a Board constituted by the Hon'ble the Chief Justice of the Patna High Court by inviting applications. The applicants are to appear in a written test and after qualifying at the written test a panel is prepared who are to appear for interview before the Interview Board constituted by the Hon'ble the Chief Justice as Chairman and two of the Hon'ble Judges of the Patna High Court as member and are selected for appointment. The minimum qualification for employment in the establishment of the Patna High Court is graduation. The nature of duties of a ministerial staff is to ass ¡st the Courts in the administration of justice. Keeping in view the special nature of work of the Assistants in the establishment of the Patna High Court, the pay scale of the staff of the High Court had all along been higher than that of the ministerial staff of the State Government. In other establishments of the State of Bihar, namely, Urban Development, Housing Department, Town Planning Organisation, Welfare, Directorate of Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation, the Assistants were given the pay scale of Rs. 335 to Rs. 555, Rs. 296 -423 and Rs. 296 -460 respectively prior to 1.4.1931, whereas, the members of the petitioner were given the pay scale of Rs. 348 -570.

(2.) The State Government constituted the 4th Pay Revision Committee. The said Committee while considering the necessity of revising the pay scale formulated guidelines to execute the recommendations and prepare report there of. They are as under : -

(3.) It is urged on behalf of the petitioner that minimum qualification for assistants in other departments of the State of Bihar is intermediate and 75% of the total appointment is done by Subordinate Service Examination Board or Bihar Public Service Commission. The 4th Pay Revision Committee, without considering the importance of the duties and responsibility of the members of the petitioner who were Assistants in the Establishment of the High Court and whose minimum qualification for appointment is graduate and who have also been appointed on the basis of written test and interview held by a duly constituted Board. recommended for the revision of pay scale from Rs. 348 -570 to the pay scale of Rs. 730 -1080 presumably on the basis of the recommendation of the revised pay scale for Assistants in the Secretariat who were also getting pay scale of Rs. 348 -570 before the submission df the report. li is stated that the case of the members of the petitioner was the case of the Assistants having minimum qualification of graduate whereas the Assistants in the Secretariat had the minimum qualification of Intermediate. The report has recommended the case of the members of the petitioner treating unequals to equals ignoring the minimum bar of qualification in the employment. The nature of -duties of the staff being if not superior cannot be different than the nature of work and duties of the Statistical Assistants in the Urban Development, graduate Assistants in the Town Planning, welfare Inspectors in the department of Welfare and Kanungo in the Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation Department and are of same in nature with that of the members of the petitioner and the aforesaid Assistants discharge the same duties as that of the members of petitioner and there is no reason whatsoever to discriminate against the members of the petitioner and other graduate assistants merely because the other assistants belong to different departments of the State of Bihar. The report having accepted the Graduate Assistants as a separate class and treating them as separate class has denied the benefit of revision of pay scale to the members of the Petitioner who by their nature of duties and responsibility are also graduate Assistants. Thus, it is stated that the State Government has acted arbitrarily in denying the members of the petitioner equality before law and equal protection of law as enshrined in Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution of India.