JUDGMENT The petitioners were appointed as Procurement Assistants/Cattle Feed As­sistants/Accounts Assistants/Marketing Assistants, in the grade of 825-1240 on 06-06-1985 in Kashmir Valley Milk Producers Cooperative Federation (hereinaf­ter referred to as ‘Milk Federation’). The Milk Federation established in the year 1982-83 landed in financial crisis and the State Cabinet on 23rd July, 2002 vide Cab­inet Decision No. 133/9 decided to scrap the “Kashmir Valley Milk Producers Coopera­tive Federation” and “Jammu Cooperative Milk Federation” and transfer its land, building and other equipment to the newly set up “J&K Cooperative Milk Producers Federation Limited.” The Cabinet also de­cided to find out solution to adjustment, voluntary retirement and reappointment of the existing employees of the Milk Fed­eration as per details given in annexure-1 to the Cabinet Order. Out of the existing employees of the Milk Federation 44 em­ployees were proposed to be absorbed in Agriculture and allied sectors and 8 other employees in J&K Cooperative Milk Pro­ducers Federation Limited to be set up vide Government Order No. 60 ASH of 2002 dated 05.04.2002. 13 employees of erst­while Milk Supply Undertaking, part of the Animal Husbandry Department, on depu­tation to the Milk Federation were reverted back to the Animal Husbandry Depart­ment. The Director Animal Husbandry, re­spondent No. 2 herein, vide No. DAHK/Estt/14998-15001 dated 15th Dec. 2001 giving details of the staff of Milk Fed­eration submitted a proposal for utilizing the services of left out staff of Milk Feder­ation in the Department of Animal Hus­bandry subject to the conditions that the adjusted staff shall form a separate entity in the Department and shall not be entitled to any promotion or absorption in the de­partmental cadres and shall have to work wherever they are adjusted as per their status, cadre, experience and requirement. The respondent No. 2 insisted that the em­ployees shall have to give an affidavit stat­ing that they will not claim any seniority/absorption and other benefits of regular employees in the Department of Animal Husbandry. 2. This was followed by a proposal for­warded by the respondent No. 2 vide No. DAHK/Comp-II/14198-99 dated 28.09.2002 suggesting utilization of the left out staff of Milk Federation for operation of centrally sponsored scheme styled as ‘Inte­grated Diary Development Programme (IDDP)’. 3. The petitioners and other left out employees of Kashmir Valley Milk Federa­tion were vide circular dated 09.08.2002 asked to give their consent/exercise option for their adjustment in Animal Husbandry Department. 3. The petitioners and other left out employees of Kashmir Valley Milk Federa­tion were vide circular dated 09.08.2002 asked to give their consent/exercise option for their adjustment in Animal Husbandry Department. In terms of joint proposal sub­mitted by Directorate of Animal Hus­bandry, Kashmir, and Managing Director, Kashmir Valley Milk Producers’ Coopera­tive Federation, the petitioners gave their consent in the requisite format. However, the matter appears to have made no head­way as the Director Animal Husbandry vide his communication dated 28.09.2002 proposed as under: “As regards the availability of posts for adjustment of the staff of Kashmir Milk Federation in Animal Hus­bandry Department, this department has no objection in case such a staff is adjusted along with their posts as a separate cadre with no claim for their inclusion in the main seniority of the department. The other option could be that such a staff is adjusted appropri­ately on the vacancies of the erstwhile MSU as are available after the adjust­ment of the staff of the Federation recently repatriated vide Government order No. 60 ASH of 2002 dated 05.04.2002. The remaining unad­justed staff may be immediately con­sidered for frozen salaries and adjusted in the future course of time as and when the appropriate vacan­cies are caused in the department. The third possibility could be that the Milk Federation is transferred back to the Department of Animal Husbandry along with its assets and liabilities and the plant can be renovated by the department and run on the pattern of erstwhile Milk Supply Scheme or Poultry with minimum staff.” 4. The respondent No. 2 vide communi­cation dated 17.03.2004 asked the Manag­ing Director, Kashmir Valley Milk Federation to consult the employees of Milk Federation as regards their willing­ness to accept adjustment in Animal Hus­bandry Department on the lower posts in absence of posts in the same grade as also to know whether the employees or any one of them was willing to opt for voluntary retirement/Golden Handshake Scheme. The Managing Director, Kashmir Milk Federation, in response to aforementioned communication vide No. MD/KVMPCF/WP/429-30 dated 25.03.2004 forwarded the consent of 13 em­ployees of Kashmir Milk Federation work­ing, in the grade of Rs. 6700-200-10700 including the present petitioners except S/Sh. Davinder Singh and Bipin Chander Koul (petitioners 5 and 7) for their adjust­ment in Animal Husbandry Department Shri Bipin Chander Koul however, con­veyed his consent separately. 5. 6700-200-10700 including the present petitioners except S/Sh. Davinder Singh and Bipin Chander Koul (petitioners 5 and 7) for their adjust­ment in Animal Husbandry Department Shri Bipin Chander Koul however, con­veyed his consent separately. 5. The respondent No. 1 vide Govern­ment order No. 94/Estt of 2004 dated 20.07.2004 ordered adjustment of the staff of Milk Federation Jammu/Kashmir (wound up) against the posts indicated in Annexure A and B. The petitioners except Abdul Rashid Rather, Abdul Abdul Bhat and Mehraj-uddin Mir working as Ac­counts Assistant/MA, Cattle Feed Assis­tant and Dairy Supervisor were also as per the Government order adjusted as Stock Assistant in Animal Husbandry/Sheep Husbandry Department. 6. The petitioners aggrieved that the post against which the petitioners were adjusted in the Animal Husbandry Depart­ment carried a pay scale far less than the pay scale in which the petitioners were placed in the Milk Federation (Rs 3050-4190 revised as Rs 6700-10700) filed CMP No. 290/07 in already pending writ petition No. 1295/2002. The petitioners’ grievance was that while the petitioner No. 1 in SWP No. 1295/2002 namely Shri Ashiq Hussain Buch was adjusted against the post of Dairy Supervisor carrying a higher pay scale, the petitioners were adjusted in a pay scale much below their pay scale in the Milk Federation. The writ court on 07.08.2006 disposed of the writ petition on 07.08.2006 along with CMP No. 290/2007 with the following direction: “... Petition is disposed of with an ob­servation that the respondents shall consider cases of other petitioners also at par with that of first petitioner as under order No. ASH/Milk/Lit/99/02 dated 17.02.2005 provided they at­tract similar considerations, and cir­cumstances attending all cases are similar. The exercise of consideration be completed within four months from now after hearing them. Whereafter, they shall be at liberty to re-agitate the matter afresh, if cause survives or accrues to them.” 7. The respondents as directed accorded consideration to the petitioners’ case and vide Government order No. 78-ASH of 2008 dated 23.5.2008 held the petitioners to be not similarly circumstanced as Shri Ashiq Hussain Buch and accordingly rejected the petitioners’ case. 8. The petitioners in the present peti­tion throw challenge to the Government order No. 78-ASH of 2008 dated 23.5.2008 whereby their case for similar treatment as given to Shri Ashiq Hussain Buch stands rejected on the grounds taken up in the petition. 9. 8. The petitioners in the present peti­tion throw challenge to the Government order No. 78-ASH of 2008 dated 23.5.2008 whereby their case for similar treatment as given to Shri Ashiq Hussain Buch stands rejected on the grounds taken up in the petition. 9. The writ petition is opposed on the grounds that all the petitioners having con­sented to their adjustment in the respon­dent Department on lower posts, cannot turn around after accepting the posts of­fered under Government order No. 94/Estt of 2004 dated 20.07.2004, to lay claim to higher posts or the posts commensurate to their status in Milk Federation. It is pleaded, that the petitioners and all other employees of Milk Federation agreed not to claim any superior position in the respon­dent Department, consented to their place­ment at the bottom of the seniority list relating to the cadre in which they are placed and also to qualify the examination where-ever they were posted as Stock As­sistants in the respondent Department. It is further pleaded that Shri Ashiq Hussain Buch -- petitioner No. 1, in SWP 1295/2002, filed by the petitioners and other employees of the Milk Federation to get the recommendations of the High Level Committee constituted under Government order No, 50-ASH of 2000 dated 07.07.2000 implemented, did not accept his adjust­ment against lower post. The respondents insist that Shri Ashiq Hussain Buch be­cause of his having not consented to his placement on a lower post or at the bottom of the cadre in which he was paced, was not similarly situated as the petitioners. It is pleaded, that the petitioners in the said background cannot claim same treatment as given to Shri Ashiq Hussain Buch ad­justed as Diary Supervisor in the higher pay scale. 10. I have gone through the pleadings and record available on the file. I have heard learned Counsel for the parties. 11. Perusal of the record reveals that the respondent No. 1, confronted with the financial turbulence in which the two Milk Federations were caught, vide Government order No. 50-ASH of 2000 dated 07.07.2000 constituted a Committee to review the functioning and existing staff structure of the Milk Federations. I have heard learned Counsel for the parties. 11. Perusal of the record reveals that the respondent No. 1, confronted with the financial turbulence in which the two Milk Federations were caught, vide Government order No. 50-ASH of 2000 dated 07.07.2000 constituted a Committee to review the functioning and existing staff structure of the Milk Federations. The Committee rec­ommended repatriation of 13 employees of the erstwhile Government Milk Supply Scheme, brought on deputation from the Animal Husbandry Department to the Milk Federations, and asked the Director Animal Husbandry Department to exam­ine whether a separate cadre could be cre­ated under which Milk Federation employees could be put to work and paid what-ever was due to them on the basis of work done. The Committee advised the Di­rector to submit a comprehensive proposal to the Government in this behalf. The Com­mittee also recommended “Golden Hand­shake Scheme” for such of the employees of the Milk Federations who wanted to opt out and were not keen in their adjustment in Animal Husbandry or any other Depart­ment. The Director Animal Husbandry-re­spondent No. 2 as a follow up to the recommendations of the Committee vide DAHK/Estt/14998-15001 dated 15th Dec. 2001 submitted as proposal for utilizing the services of remaining staff of the Milk Fed­eration in the Department of Animal Hus­bandry subject to the condition that they formally undertake not to lay any claim to seniority and ask for other benefits avail­able to the regular employees of the De­partment. Resultantly the petitioners and other employees of the Milk Federation vide Circular dated 09.08.2002 issued by Managing Director Milk Federation, were asked to give their consent/exercise option for their adjustment in Animal Husbandry Department subject to the conditions pro­posed by Director Animal Husbandry. However, the Affidavits sworn by the peti­tioners consenting to their absorption in Animal Husbandry Department in accor­dance with the joint proposal of Director Animal Husbandry and Managing Director of the Milk Federation did not result in their adjustment and that of other left out employees of the Milk Federation in the Animal Husbandry Department. 12. The Managing Director Milk Feder­ation in pursuance of communication dated 17.03.2004 received from respondent No. 2, asked the petitioners and other employees to signify their willingness to accept their adjustment in Animal Husbandry Depart­ment on the lower posts in absence of posts in the same grade available in the Animal Husbandry Department. 12. The Managing Director Milk Feder­ation in pursuance of communication dated 17.03.2004 received from respondent No. 2, asked the petitioners and other employees to signify their willingness to accept their adjustment in Animal Husbandry Depart­ment on the lower posts in absence of posts in the same grade available in the Animal Husbandry Department. The petitioners with the exception of S/Shri Davinder Singh and Bipin Chander Koul (petitioners 5 and 7) as already stated submitted their consent that was duly forwarded by Man­aging Director Milk Federation vide No MD/KVMPCF/WP/429-30 dated 25.03.2004 to the respondent No. 2. The letter dated 17th March 2004, of respon­dent No. 2 and the consent given by the petitioners assume importance in the facts and circumstances of the case and need to be noticed:- (I) The Managing Director (KVMPCF) Chashmashahi, Srinagar. Sub:- Adjustment of Milk Federation em­ployees in Government Departments. Ref:- Minutes of meeting held on 10th March 2004 in Administrative Deptt. Sir, Before a concrete proposal on the afore­said subject is submitted to the Adminis­trative Department as per the decision take in the meeting, you are requested to please consult all Milk Federation employ­ees and find-out:- 1. No. of employees who opt for their adjustment in the Department on the lower posts in absence of the posts in the same grade. 2. The No. of employees who could opt for voluntarily retirement scheme/Golden Shake-Hand. The information may kindly be sent to this office at the earliest. Yours faithfully Dr. M.M. Ahmad Animal Husbandry Srinagar-Kashmir Copy to the: I/The Secretary to Government animal/Sheep Husbandry Department J&K Srinagar for favour of his kind information. (II) Subject:- Absorption of Milk Federa­tion employees in Government Depart­ments. Ref:- Letter of Director, Animal Hus­bandry Department bearing No. DAHK/Estt/20155-56 dt. 17.03.2004, cir­culated by Managing Director Milk Fed­eration vide No. MD/KVMPCF-04/428 dated 17.03.2004. With above cited reference, we the em­ployees of Milk Federation do hereby elect to opt for our absorption in Ani­mal Husbandry Department, Further, owing to absence of the post of carry­ing out grade in animal Husbandry Department. We also agree to out ad­justment with pay protection on the pots carrying lower pay scale. S. No.Name & Designation of employeeSigna­ture 01Gulzar Ahmad Shah MPO/MPASig. 02 Bashir Ahmad Dar MPO/MPA Sig. 03 Mohamad Yousf Bhat MPA Sig. 04 Mohamad Akbar Bhat MPA Sig. 05 Altaf Hussain Shah MPA Sig. 06 Abdul Rouf Khan MPA/APO Sig. 07 Farooq Ahmad Wani MPA Sig. S. No.Name & Designation of employeeSigna­ture 01Gulzar Ahmad Shah MPO/MPASig. 02 Bashir Ahmad Dar MPO/MPA Sig. 03 Mohamad Yousf Bhat MPA Sig. 04 Mohamad Akbar Bhat MPA Sig. 05 Altaf Hussain Shah MPA Sig. 06 Abdul Rouf Khan MPA/APO Sig. 07 Farooq Ahmad Wani MPA Sig. 08 Rafi Ahmad Masoodi QCO/MPA Sig. 09 Javid Ahmad Jan PMO/MPA Sig. 10 Ashiq Hussain Buch Nil 11 Fayaz Ahmad Peer S.O./MA (Est) Sig. 12 Abdul Rashid Rather M.A. Sig. 13 Peer Mehrajdin Diary Supervisor Sig 14 Abdul Ahad Bhat Sig. MPO Milk Procurement QCO Quality Control officer S.O. Section Officer MPO Milk Procurement Officer CFA Cattle Feed Assistant AMM Asstt. Manager Milk M.A MilkA. Asstt. PMO Plant Maintenance Officer RPO Reception P. Officer 13. The joint consent given by the peti­tioners duly forwarded by the Managing Director Milk Federation, vide communica­tion letter dated 24th March 2004, paved way for Government order No. 94/Estt of 2004 dated 20th July 2004 directing adjustment of the petitioners and ether employ­ees against the posts indicated therein. The petitioners obviously pursuant to the con­sent given have been adjusted at posts lower than the posts they held in Milk Federation. There is substance in the ground urged in opposition to the writ pe­tition that the petitioners having opted for the posts lower than the posts held by them in the Milk Federation, cannot complain of any prejudice or discriminatory treatment and seek parity with the employee/(s) of the Federation who did not consent to his/their placement at lower posts and was/were resultantly given a higher post in the De­partment. Since Shri Ashiq Hussain Buch did not consent to his placement against lower post in the Department, the respon­dents were free to give him a posting com­mensurate to his academic/technical qualification. 14. It is pertinent to point out that one of the petitioners namely Shri Javid Ahmad Jan-petitioner No. 2 in the present writ petition filed writ petition registered as SWP No. 1555/2004 pleading same grounds as set out in the present petition to seek quashment of order No. 13/-ASH of 2004 dated 19th November 2004, whereby Shri Ashiq Hussain Buch was adjusted as Diary Supervisor in the grade of Rs. 6700-10700 as against the post of Stock Assis­tant in the pay scale of 3050-4590 give to the petitioner. 6700-10700 as against the post of Stock Assis­tant in the pay scale of 3050-4590 give to the petitioner. The petitioner’s case in SWP No. 1555/2004 was that though he was holding the post of Milk Procurement Offi­cer in the Milk Federation carrying pay scale of 7450-11500 was placed against the post of Stock Assistant in the pay scale of 3050-4590 in Animal Husbandry Depart­ment, Shri Ashiq Hussain Buch holding the post of Marking Assistant in the lower pay scale in Milk Federation was vide order No. 13/-ASH of 2004 dated 19.11.2004 given an equivalent post of Diary Supervisor in the pay scale of 6600-10700. The writ petition was dismissed on 16th September 2005 inter alia on the ground that as the petitioner had voluntarily accepted the lower post and also the terms and conditions fixed by the Government order No. 94-ASH of 2004 dated 20.07.2004. The petitioner was not to have any grievance with Govern­ment order No. 13/-ASH of 2004 dated 19.11.2004 15. In the circumstances the order No. 78-ASH of 2008 dated 23.05.2008, whereby the petitioners have been held to be not similarly circumstanced as Shri Ashiq Hussain Buch and not entitled to same treatment as given to Shri Buch does not warrant any interference, or infringe any of the rights of the petitioners’. The writ petition to the extent it impugns/throws challenge to the Government order No. 78-ASH of 2008 dated 23.05.2008 and seeks a direction to the respondents to give equiv­alent status to the petitioners is to be re­jected. 16. However, as fate of SWP No. 1555/2004 and as also of the claim for sta­tus equal to Shri Ashiq Hussain Buch set up in the present case, has been decided on the basis of the consent give by the petition­ers to their placement against lower post, such consent given assumes importance. The consent cannot be used selectively by the respondents. The respondents cannot pick up a part of the consent to plead that petitioners cannot claim a status higher to the status given, to them, and ignore other part of the consent. It needs to be pointed out that the petitioners while consenting to their placement on a lower post, than one held by them in Milk Federation made such consent subject to the condition that the pay drawn by them in Milk Federation was protected. In other words the consent given was conditional and qualified. It needs to be pointed out that the petitioners while consenting to their placement on a lower post, than one held by them in Milk Federation made such consent subject to the condition that the pay drawn by them in Milk Federation was protected. In other words the consent given was conditional and qualified. So viewed the respondents while acting upon the consent given by the petitioners were also to have due regard to the condition subject to which consent was given. Viewed thus while the petitioners claim to status equal to that of Shri Ashiq Hussain Buch and quashment of the Government order No, 78-ASH of 2008 dated 23rd May 2008 is rejected, the respondents are directed to accord consideration to the pay protection to the petitioners in accordance with rules governing the matter. The petition is accordingly disposed of, along-with all connected CMP’s.