ASHOK KUMAR Vs. STATE OF J&K

JUDGEMENT

(1.) EXCISE and Taxation Inspection, as the petitioners are, pray for a writ of mandamus with direction to the respondent -State to place them and their whole cadre of inspectors in one single grade of 680 -1240 with a further direction to implement the recommendation of the second pay commission as also the pay review committee allegedly constituted thereafter by giving them the benefit of uniform rate of 340 -700 right up from 1973 when the revised pay rules of 1972 came into effect on the submission of the report by the second pay commission.

(2.) , According to the petitioners the Inspectors of Excise and Taxation Department were placed at par in the matter of pay scales with that of the Naib Tehsildars right up from the year 2003 BK. The second pay commission constituted by the respondent State recommended the grade of 340 -700 in the case of Inspectors of Excise Department. The respondent -State did not implement the recommendations of the second pay commission where after petitioners made a number of representations with the result that a pay review committee headed by the then Chief Secretary of the State was constituted who recommended the pay scale of 340 -700 for Excise and Taxation Inspectors as allegedly recommended by the second pay commission with retrospective effect from the date the report of the second pay commission was implemented by the State. No action was taken by the State despite representations made to it. On 7.8.1979 when the third pay commission was constituted under the chairmanship of Honble Justice J.N Bhat, representation was made by the petitioners to the same effect. The respondent. State has neither implemented the recommendations of the second pay commission for awarding the grade of 340 -700 to the petitioners nor have the recommendations of the pay review committed referred to hereinabove implemented. The petitioners -allege that they have been subjected to discrimination by non -implementation of the aforesaid recommendations. The action of the respondent is alleged to be violative of the provisions of Arts. 14 and 19 of the Constitution of India. The petitioners also made representations to the Finance Minister but without any result. The petitioners submit that in spite of the fact that the in report of the 3rd pay commission chapter IV page 4, the principle of equal pay for equal work according to the commission has been kept in view in fixing the pay scales and grades, the commission has altogether been oblivious of the principle while fixing the grade of Excise and Taxation Inspectors, the cadre of the petitioners. It is further submitted that the respondent -State in a democratic set up is bound to do social justice and unless the petitioners are granted the relief prayed for, the State would be guilty of making discrimination, it is submitted that the respondent State has not applied its mind to the failure of the 3rd pay commission in the matter of fixation of uniform grades of petitioners in the revised scales and thus violated the principles of equal pay for equal work. It is claimed that the petitioners discharge the same duties and have the same responsibility and are entitled to a uniform grade in the revised scales which has been denied to them. The classification of the petitioners in grade 1 and 11 in the revised scales has continued the injustice allegedly done to them by non - implementation of the recommendations of the second pay commission as also of the review committee referred to hereinabove. The failure of the respondent State to improve the promotion prospects of the petitioners to the next higher grade by increasing the percentage of vacancies in higher grade has also caused great injustice to them,

(3.) DESPITE opportunities counter was not filed and the right of the respondent -State to file the same was closed by this court vide its order dated 2012.1983