IMPORTANT POINT
Before the abstract doctrine of Equal Pay for Equal Work is pressed in service it must be shown that the concerned incumbents have parity of qualifications, duties and functions and then only they can be treated at par for the purpose of pay scales.

JUDGMENT

S.B. Majmudar, J.-The State of Tamil Nadu and Director of Agriculture, Madras as common appellants have brought in challenge a common judgment rendered by Tamil Nadu Administrative Tribunal in two Original Applications filed by the contesting respondents who are working as Deputy Agricultural Officers in the Tamil Nadu Agricultural Extension Subordinate Service under the Agriculture Department of the said State. The Tribunal by its impugned common judgment in these two original applications has taken the view that the contesting respondents are entitled to get the same pay scale as available to Agricultural Officers working in Tamil Nadu Agricultural Extension Service as according to the Tribunal both these categories of employees perform the same type of work and carry out the same type of duties. Consequently on the principle of Equal Pay for Equal Work the appellant-State must maintain parity of pay scales between these two groups of employees working in its Agriculture Department. The Tribunal has also directed that the contesting respondents be paid all arrears with effect from 01st June 1988.

2. On grant of special leave to appeal under Article 136 of the Constitution of India the appellants have preferred these appeals. During the pendency of these appeals by an interim order of this Court the impugned judgment and order of the Tribunal have remained stayed. In order to appreciate the grievance of the respondents which appealed to the Tribunal, it is necessary to note a few introductory facts leading to these proceedings.

3. The respondents herein were originally appointed in the Agriculture Department of the State as Fieldman. They belonged to Tamil Nadu Agricultural Subordinate Service. They were subsequently promoted to the posts of Deputy Agricultural Officers. These posts could be filled in by promoting Assistant Agricultural Officers. There is no higher avenue of promotion for the respondents beyond the promotional posts of Deputy Agricultural Officers.

4. On the other hand Agricultural Officers are being directly recruited from open market and they belong to Tamil Nadu Agricultural Extension Service. The minimum educational qualification for being directly recruited as Agricultural Officer is Bachelor of Science (Agriculture) while so far as Deputy Agricultural Officers are concerned the minimum qualification for being considered for promotion to the said post is passing of SSLC examination equivalent to 10th standard examination. The respondents contended before the Tribunal that though they were discharging the same type of duties as Agricultural Officers the pay scale available to them was Rs. 1600-60-2300-60-2660/- while the pay scale of Agricultural Officers which was originally Rs.1640-60-2600-75-2900/- was further upward revised to Rs. 1820-60-2300-75-3200/- and no such upward revisions and parity of revised pay scale were offered to the Deputy Agricultural Officers like the respondents. As noted earlier the said contention of the respondents appealed to the Tribunal and on applying the principle of Equal Pay for Equal Work the impugned order was passed in favour of the respondents.

5. In support of these appeals learned counsel for appellants submitted, relying on a series of decisions of this Court to which we will make a reference hereafter, that difference in educational qualifications can furnish a rational criterion for classifying different categories of employees and for offering them different pay scales. It was submitted that Agricultural Officers are directly recruited as gazetted officers in Tamil Nadu Agricultural Extension Service while the respondents who were promotee-Deputy Agricultural Officers were non-gazetted officers belonging to Tamil Nadu Agricultural Extension Subordinate Service. That the methods of recruitment to both these services were different. Agricultural Officers were directly recruited while Deputy Agricultural Officers were promotees. Their educational qualifications