ORDER

1. This is an appeal preferred by the State of West Bengal impugning the judgment of the Calcutta High Court allowing the writ petition filed by the respondents claiming equal pay for equal work and special pay and allowances for certain kind of duties provided under the Rules. The learned Single Judge allowed the writ petition holding that the writ petitionerrespondents could not be denied same allowances for similar duties discharged by other employees and the special pay and other allowances as admissible under the Rules. The appeal preferred against the judgment of the learned Single Judge by the State of West Bengal was dismissed by the Division Bench.

2. The brief facts necessary for dealing with the controversy involved in this appeal are that draftsmen consisting of different categories are members of the West Bengal Subordinate Engineering Services. There seem to be different categories of draftsmen right from the beginning. For the period between 1951-63, there have been three categories of draftsmen:

(1) having overseers qualification in the scale of Rs 150-250;

(2) having sub-overseers qualification in the scale of Rs 100-225; and

(3) pass certificate of Government College of Arts, in the scale of Rs 80-180.

3. In the year 1961 the above scales were revised to Rs 200-400, Rs 175-300, Rs 150-250 respectively. Thereafter, a Pay Committee seems to have been constituted and the draftsmen were placed in five categories adding two more to the existing categories, namely, school final certificate with experience alone in the scale of Rs 125-200 and fifth category of those who have been appointed on the basis of experience alone in the scale of Rs 100-140. In 1997 the Second Pay Commission again reduced five categories into three, they being: (1) overseer and sub-overseer in the pay a scale of Rs 300-600, (ii) government school-pass certificate and SF certificate in the scale of Rs 230-425, (iii) those who had only experience in the pay scale of Rs 180-350. The above scales were revised again to Rs 380910, Rs 340-750 and Rs 280-670 respectively.

4. So far as the two categories of the draftsmen as they used to be earlier, namely, overseer and sub-overseer are concerned, they have been placed inone scale of pay and there was no grievance about it However, the draftsmen placed in Categories (ii) and (iii), namely, those who had government schoolpass certificate or SF certificate and those who have only experience to their credit, claimed to be placed in the category of overseer and sub-overseer in the scale of Rs 380-910. They filed a writ petition in the High Court. Besides the claim for the same emoluments for similar work, they also claimed otherallowances, for example, special allowance, cycle allowance and arduous duty allowance, etc. The claim was preferred mainly on three grounds. First, that draftsmen constitute one category and discharge similar work, therefore, there should not be any distinction in the matter of emoluments to be paid to them. The principle of equal pay for equal work would according to the petitioner-respondents, be applicable in their cases. The next contention seems to have been that in other departments such different categories have been merged into one category and one pay scale has been made admissible to them, therefore, the same should be done insofar as draftsmen in different departments are concerned. In support of their contentions they had referred to some decisions of this Court. The learned Single Judge held that the draftsmen have been discharging similar duties and that being the position they are entitled to the same emoluments. It is further held that the academic qualifications will have no bearing on the amount of the emoluments paid for a similar nature of work. In this connection, our attention has particularly been drawn to the observation made by the learned Single Judge to the effect:

"In the instant case, draftsmen having different qualifications even though they are