Judgement

NATARAJAN, J.:- The genesis for these appeals by special leave, the special leave petition and the petition under Art. 32 of the Constitution is the grant of pay scales at the rates recommended by the Shiv Shankar Committee for the employees of the Delhi Electricity Supply Undertaking to only a section of the ministerial staff of the New Delhi Municipal Committee who happened to be working in the electricity wing of the said Committee at the relevant time. There is a good deal of factual material and historical background to be covered for a full and proper appreciation of the contentions of the appellants and the petitioners on the one hand and the respondents on the other in these appeals and petitions. We will, therefore, concern ourselves with that exercise before taking up the contentions of the parties.

2. In the Union Territory of Delhi there are two main civic bodies viz. the New Delhi Municipal Committee (for short the NDMC) and the Delhi Municipal Corporation (for short the MCD). The NDMC comprises of New Delhi as it existed prior to 1947 and was constituted under the Punjab Municipal Act, 1913 (1911). The NDMC discharges all civic functions including supply of water and electricity in the areas falling within its jurisdiction. In 1957 the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act came to be enacted and in pursuance thereof, the Delhi Municipal Corporation was constituted amalgamating within itself a few other smaller civic bodies which existed independent of the NDMC and the resultant position was that the rest of the areas fell within the jurisdiction of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi.

3. The NDMC, forming a compact unit, had divided its civic work into various departments. Besides engaging technical staff, the NDMC engaged non-technical staff such as municipal staff, clerks etc. for working in the various departments including the electricity and water-supply departments. In so far as the non-technical staff are concerned, they constitute one unified cadre and are liable to transfer from one department to another. They are governed by a common channel of seniority, in respect of each class of employees with common seniority list.

4. The set up of the MCD is, however, different since the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act provides for the constitution of three separate and independent wings viz. the electricity, the general and the water, sewage and disposal wings. The electricity wing came to be designated as the Delhi Electricity Supply Undertaking (hereinafter referred to as DESU) and is governed by an independent budget and headed by a separate and independent General Manager and its employees are governed by a separate cadre and a separate seniority list. The general wing of the MCD performs the other general civic duties and functions. The third wing is concerned with the distribution of water and the disposal of sewage etc. and it is also independent of the general wing.

5. To satisfy the demands of the employees of the MCD, NDMC etc. the Government accepted the report of the Third Pay Commission appointed by it and the pay scales, as recommended by the Pay Commission were accepted by the NDMC as well as the general wing of the NCD. The technical staff of DESU claimed higher scales of pay as they were not satisfied with the pay scales recommended by the Pay Commission. The Government, therefore, constituted a Committee known as the Shiv Shanker Committee (hereinafter the SS Committee for short) to go into the question of revision of pay scales etc. of the technical staff alone of DESU and the Committee submitted its report in 1973. The non-technical or ministerial staff of DESU who were not covered by the report of the SS Committee demanded and agitated that they should also be granted pay at the rates recommended by the SS Committee. The DESU conceded the demand of the ministerial staff at its meetings held in May 1973 and decided to revise the pay scales of the non-technical staff also working in DESU to the l