Judgment

Pattanaik, J.-Leave granted.

2. The short question that arises in this appeal is whether the Tribu­nal was justified in directing the appellant to fix up the pay of respondents in the cadre of Head Clerk by notionally holding that they are also eligible to receive the special pay of Rs. 35/- per month in the lower post even though factually the respondents were not getting the said special pay.

3. The short facts leading to the filing of the application before the Tribunal by the respondents are that they were working as Senior Clerks and while so working they were promoted to the post of Head Clerks. Under the orders of the competent authority 10% of the posts of Senior Clerks were identified to be the posts involving arduous nature of work and those of the incumbents who were being posted to those identified posts were getting special pay of Rs. 35/- per month. This was the state of affairs prior to 1.1.1986. Usually on the basis of seniority amongst the Senior Clerks, postings were being made to the identified posts carrying a special pay of Rs. 35/- per month. On account of restructuring of the cadre a large number of vacancies occurred in the category of Head Clerk. The