SANTOKH SINGH Vs. STATE AND OTHERS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The genesis of the controversy raised in this Contempt Petition lies in the decision of this Court dated 17.04.1996 rendered in SWP No.529 of 1992 titled Triloki Nath Bhat and Others v. State of J & K and Others. This was a petition filed by the District and Sessions Judges of the State, seeking inter alia the removal of pay anomaly created by Jammu and Kashmir Pay Revision Rules, 1992 issued vide SRO No.75 of 1992 dated 30.03.1992.

(2.) The precise grievance of the District Judges in the petition was that the grade of District Judges and the Selection Grade District Judges should have been at entries in S.Nos. 25 and 26 of the Schedule appended to the Rules and should not have appeared against S.Nos. 23 and 25 as was reflected in the said Schedule. The plea of the District Judges succeeded and a Bench of this Court quashed the Schedule in so far as it fixed the Pay SCALE of District Judges and Selection Grade District Judges by reference to entries 23 and 25 and directed the respondents to treat the District Judges and the Selection Grade District Judges to be and always to have been in the pay scale as appearing at entry Nos. 25 and 26 respectively. They were also held entitled to all the consequential benefits including the payment of arrears of salary. The direction issued by the Court in the petition filed by in as many as 36 District and Sessions Judges was made applicable to all other District Judges and Selection Grade District Judges, who were not even party petitioners in the said petition. The judgment rendered was thus a judgment in rem. For facility of reference, the relevant extract of the operative portion of the directions issued in SWP No.529/1992 are reproduced here under:-

(3.) Indubitably, the judgment aforesaid was a judgment in rem and was applicable to all the District Judges and the Selection Grade District Judges of the State. There is no dispute that the judgment passed by the Single Judge was later on upheld by the Division Bench of this Court as also by the Hon'ble Supreme Court and, therefore, attained finality.