UNIKAT SANKUNNI MENON Vs. STATE OF RAJASTHAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS writ application has been filed by the petitioner Unikat Sankunni menon, deputy Secretary to the Government of Rajasthan challenging the validity of the provision of the Rajasthan Civil Services (Rationalisation of Pay Scales) Rules and schedules, 1956 whereby the grade of the selected posts of the Deputy secretaries to the Government drawn from the Rajasthan Secretariat Service has been fixed without special pay and has prayed that the words "without special pay" in the Schedule attached to the said Rules may he declared violativc of Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution.

(2.) THE petitioner's case is that he was selected in 1955 in the Rajasthan secretariat Service after the Rajasthan Secretariat Service Rules, 1954, came into force, and was appointed as the Assistant Secretary to the Government of rajasthan. Prior to the introduction of the Rajasthan Civil Services (Rationalisation of Pay Scales) Rules and Schedules, 1956, the ordinary time scale prescribed for his service was Rs. 250-25-400-EB-25-500, but after 1956 when the Rajasthan civil Services (Rationalisation of Pay Scales) Rules came into force, the scale was changed and the new scale prescribed was Rs 250-25-500-KB-25-750. In the month of January, 1959, the petitioner was drawing a salary of Rs. 475 in the said grade with Rs 75 as special pay attached to the post of the Assistant Secretary. On 10th January, 1959, the petitioner was promoted as officiating Deputy Secretary to the Government of Rajasthan to which post he was con firmed on 14th July, 1960 His salary as Deputy Secretary was fixed Rs. 650 per month in the grade of rs 500-30-740-EB 30 800-50-900 which was the grade prescribed for the selection Post (Deputy Secretary to Government) for a member of the Rajasthan secretariat Service. His grievance is that if a person is drawn from the Indian administrative Service or from the Rajasthan Administrative Service to work as a deputy Secretary to the Government he is given a special pay of Rs. 150, but this special pay is denied to a member of the Rajasthan Secretariat Service as the rajasthan Civil Services (Rationalisation of Pay Scales) Rules and Schedules, 1956, lay down that the grade prescribed for the Selection Post, namely the deputy Secretary to the Government would not carry any special pay. His further contention is that the persons who are appointed Deputy Secretaries to the Government of Rajasthan belonging to the Indian Administrative Service or the rajasthan Administrative Service are required to perform the same nature of work under similar conditions and circumstances which a Deputy Secretary drawn from the Rajasthan Secretariat Service is required to do. It is further alleged that the deputy Secretaries to the Government are appointed without any distinction and a member of any one of the three services, namely, the Indian Administrative service, Rajasthan Administrative Service and Rajasthan Secretariat Service, can be appointed to any of the posts of the Deputy Secretaries in the Secretariat and the persons belonging to the said three services can be posted in any of the departments to which Deputy Secretaries are attached. The petitioner for example quoted that he was first of all appointed as a Deputy Secretary in the Irrigation and Power Department "" and subsequently the same post was held by a Deputy secretary drawn from the Rajasthan Administrative Service and then from Indian administrative Service. He furthur quoted that the petitioner took over charge of the post of a Deputy Secretary in the Agriculture Department from an incumbent who belonged to the Indian Administrative Service cadre. It is also contended that from the point of view of the powers wielded by the deputy Secretaries, the duties and responsibilities discharged by them and the status enjoyed by them, there is absolutely no distinction or difference between the Deputy Secretaries drawn from any of the three services viz. the Indian administrative Service, Rajasthan Administrative Service or Rajasthan Secretariat service Cadres. According to him, all Dy. Secretaries to the Government discharge the same kind of work and are similarly situated in respect of their employment and that the special pay allowable to the members of Indian Administrative service and Rajasthan Administrative Service cadres are in lieu of the arduous nature of duties that they have to perform as Deputy Secretaries. His grievance is that the Government while appointing the members of the Rajasthan Secretariat service as Deputy Secretaries deprived them by enacting a provision in the rajasthan Civil Services (Rationalisation of Pay Scales) Rules that the grade prescribed for them would not carry any special pay. This provision, according to the petitioner, is violalive of Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution as it discriminates between members of the Indian Administrative Service and rajasthan Administrative Service on the one side and the members of the rajasthan Secretariat Service on the other who are similarly situated in the matters of employment without any rational basis. The petitioner made representations to the Government of Rajasthan after he was confirmed to the present post of Deputy Secretary on 6th September, 1960, but 'the' Government did not take any decision till 5th April, 1963, when a letter was issued to the petitioner that his representation was rejected. Thereafter he made approaches to the Chief Secretary and the Chief Minister, but these efforts also did not bear any fruit. He was, therefore, left with no alternative but to seek redress from the Court by invoking its extraordinary jurisdiction under Article 226 of the constitution. The petitioner has, in these circumstances, prayed that the provisions of the Rajasthan Civil Services (Rationalisation of Pay Scales) Rules and schedules, 1956 in so far as they exclude the petitioner and the members of the rajasthan Secretariat Service from the benefit of the special pay attached to the deputy Secretary to the Government of Rajasthan be declared ultra vires of the constitution and that by issue of a writ of mandamus or any other appropriate writ the Government may be directed to pay the petitioner from 10th January, 1959 a special pay of Rs. 150 per month which is admissible to other Deputy Secretaries to the Government of Rajasthan drawn from the Indian Administrative Service and the Rajasthan Administrative Service.

(3.) THE State of Rajasthan in their reply have denied the claim of the petitioner and have submitted that a member of the Rajasthan Secretarial Service on appointment to the post of Deputy Secretary under the Rajasthan Civil Services (Rationalisation of Pay Scales) Rules and Schedules is allowed a pay scale of Rs. 500-30-800-50-900 and is entitled to a fixation of his pay in this scale either at its minimum of Rs 500 or at the stage equal to his pay in the ordinary scale plus Rs. 150 whichever is higher, and if this amount arrived did not correspond to any stage in the pay scale then his pay is to be fixed at the next higher stage. It is also submitted that rule 17 of the Rajasthan Secretariat Service Rules that governs the fixation of the scale of pay of the members of that service, (as it then stood) was amended in consultation with the Association formed by the Assistant Secretaries to the Government of Rajasthan and a provision was made therein to give a minimum increase of Rs. 150 by way of compensation for not allowing the special pay when a member of the Rajasthan Secretariat Service is promoted to the selection Post of the Deputy Secretary, it is also averred that the Government of rajasthan is free to create a separate service for the employees in the Secretariat and to prescribe a difference scale of pay for such a service. It is further averred that the members of the Rajasthan Administrative Service and the Indian Administrative Service belong to different services and they are recruited from different sources with different qualifications prescribed for them and they are governed by different rules and that the duties and responsibilities of these two services are wider than those of the officers of the Rajasthan Secretariat service. The conditions of service of all the three services being different, petitioner cannot claim with any justification that there is a discrimination created by denying the special pay and prescribing a higher scale of pay for selection posts of the Rajasthan Secretariat Service than the time scale prescribed for the members of the Rajasthan Administrative Service. In view of these circumstances, it is prayed that the petitioner's petition may be dismissed with costs.