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2014 DIGILAW 542 (UTT)

Rajendra Prasad Dobhal v. State of Uttarakhand

2014-12-01

SUDHANSHU DHULIA

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JUDGMENT : Sudhanshu Dhulia, J. 1. The petitioner was an employee of the Revenue Department of the State Government. After reaching the age of superannuation he retired from service on 31.07.2008 from the post of Head Clerk. His claim before this Court is for grant of salary between 2006 to 2008 (from the date of a Government Order till the date of his retirement) for the post of Administrative Officer Grade-II which is in the pay scale of Rs.5000-150-8000. Since such claim of the petitioner has been rejected vide order dated 08.06.2011, he has filed this writ petition before this Court in order to seek the relief from this Court. 2. In the counter affidavit, the stand taken by the Government for not granting the pay scale of Administrative Officer Grade-II is that the petitioner has built up his claim for grant of higher salary on the post of Administrative Officer Grade-II on the basis of Government Order dated 03.06.2006. The said Government Order, however, states that in all such departments where there was earlier an existing a post of Senior Assistant and a higher post of Head Clerk having different pay-scales, there was a provision for promotion from the post of Senior Assistant to the post of Head Clerk but with effect from 01.01.1996 pay scale of these posts have been merged and since the post of Head Clerk was a promotional post from the post of Senior Assistant, therefore, upon merger of the pay scales of these two posts, the promotion avenues from the post of Senior Assistant to the post of Head Clerk do not exist and therefore, in order to remove this anomaly, such persons who were earlier working as Head Clerk will be called as “Administrative Officer Grade-II” and their pay scale will be Rs.5000-150-8000. All the same, since in the department where the petitioner was working there was no post of Head Clerk, therefore, the petitioner cannot be granted the benefit of Government Order dated 03.06.2006. 3. There are two essential conditions in the Government Order dated 03.06.2006 to get benefit of this Government Order. Firstly, there should be a post of Head Clerk in the department and the person must be working on the post of Senior Assistant in the pay scale of Rs.4500-120-7000 and only after merger he should be granted the benefit of the post of Administrative Officer Grade-II. 4. Firstly, there should be a post of Head Clerk in the department and the person must be working on the post of Senior Assistant in the pay scale of Rs.4500-120-7000 and only after merger he should be granted the benefit of the post of Administrative Officer Grade-II. 4. The petitioner has drawn the attention of this Court towards the Annexure No.4 of the writ petition whereby before 1988 there was no post of Head Clerk in the department of Land Acquisition and the said post was being called as “Reader-cum-Ahalmad. However, since 1988 this post was redesignated as that of Head Clerk, therefore, to say that there is no post of Head Clerk in the Land Acquisition department would not be correct. The petitioner has also drawn the attention of this Court to the pay slip given to the petitioner wherein since 2001 the petitioner is drawing the salary in the pay scale of Rs.4500-7000. It is, therefore, clear that the petitioner is liable to be given the benefit of the Government Order dated 03.06.2006. The denial of the benefit of the above order to the petitioner has absolutely no justification. 5. In view thereof, the writ petition is allowed. The petitioner be redesignated as “Administrative Officer Grade-II” and the benefit of Government Order dated 03.06.2006 be given to the petitioner. Since this benefit has been wrongly denied to the petitioner and since the petitioner has already retired from service, therefore, he would be given arrears of salary since the date of Government order till the date of retirement. Since the petitioner ought to have been retired from the post of Administrative Officer Grade-II, his pension will be re-fixed in terms of his post of the Administrative Officer Grade-II to which he would be deemed to have been retired in the year 2008. 6. Let the needful be done within a period of 12 weeks from the date of production of a certified copy of this order. 7. No order as to costs.