ORDER

1. Leave granted.

2. By consent of learned counsel for the parties the appeal is taken up for final hearing.

3. The short question is whether the High Court was justified in directing the appellant-State to pay to the respondents-petitioners before the High Court the salary and allowances as are being paid to the regular employees holding similar posts and whether the respondents could be held entitled to the payment of difference of the pay scale for the period of last three years from the date of filing of the writ petition. It is not a dispute and cannot be disputed that the respondents are NMR daily wage Ledger-Keepers/Ledger Clerks. Their contention before the High Court was that they were doing the same work as regular Ledger Clerks who are recruited by the employer. Consequently, they must be paid equal pay on the ground of equal work. In our view, the principle of "Equal Pay for Equal Work" can enure to the respondents to the limited extent that when they were found to have been giving similar work as Ledger Clerks/Ledger-Keepers they could have been paid the minimum of the pay scale of a Ledger-Keeper which was available to regularly appointed Ledger-Keepers/Ledger C