MANGAT RAM Vs. STATE OF J&K

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner in this petition, inter alia, prays for a direction to the respondents to grant him the benefit of Jammu & Kashmir Civil Services (Revised) Pay Rules, 1973 with effect from the date of his first appointment in the year 1983 in the Power Development Department with consequential benefits of subsequent pay revisions. The petitioner has also claimed refund of an amount of Rs. 12,456/- along with interest allegedly recovered by respondents from the petitioner.

(2.) Briefly stated, the facts, as narrated by the petitioner in this petition, are that the petitioner was a daily rated worker till the year 1983 when he was placed in the graded pay scale of Rs. 345-460 by respondent No.3 vide order No.113/CEJ dated 27.08.1982. It is stated by the petitioner that since at the time of his placement in the regular pay scale, he was ITI trained with Matriculation and therefore, he was entitled to be treated as skilled worker to be placed in the higher pay scale of Rs. 280-520. It is also claimed that on the basis of ITI qualification possessed by the petitioner, the petitioner was subsequently granted the pay scale of Rs. 800-1500 by respondent No.3 vide SWP No.2761/2017 his order No.128/CEJ of 1985 dated 13.06.1988. The petitioner was adjusted in M &RE Division -I, Jammu and in the year 1989 was transferred to M &RE Division, Gandhi Nagar, Jammu.

(3.) The grievance of the petitioner is that the respondents without taking note of SRO 149 of 1973 erroneously treated the petitioner as unskilled worker and regularised him in the pay scale of Rs. 345-460 in the year 1982 whereas he was entitled to be treated as skilled worker to be placed in the higher pay scale in terms of SRO 149 of 1973. It is the further grievance of the petitioner that this error committed by the respondents came to be compounded when the subsequent revision took place in the year 1987.