JUDGMENT

MARKANDEY KATJU, J.—

1.This appeal has been filed against the impugned judgment of the Gauhati High Court dated 16.9.2002 in W.P. No.7598 of 2001.

2.Heard learned counsel for the parties and perused the record.

3.In brief the claim of the respondents herein who were Senior Auditors in the office of the Accountant General, Assam and Meghalaya, was to be given parity in pay scale with Assistants in the Central Secretariat. This claim was decreed by the Central Administrative Tribunal vide its order dated 19.1.2001 and the order of the Tribunal was upheld by the Gauhati High Court. Hence this appeal.

4.This Court in S.C. Chandra and Ors. v. State of Jharkhand and Ors.1, JT 2007(10) 4 SC 272 has held that the Court cannot fix pay scales as that is the purely executive function. In the aforesaid decision one of us (Markandey Katju, J.) has discussed in detail the principle of equal pay for equal work and has observed that the said principle has been considerably watered down in recent decisions of this Court, and it is not applied unless there is a complete and wholesale identity between the two groups, and even there the matter should be sent for examination by an Expert Committee