IMPORTANT POINTS
‘Equal pay for equal work’ depends upon a large number of factors including equal work, equal value, source and manner of appointment, equal identity of group and wholesale or complete identity; mode and manner of appointment is a relevant factor.
Only because some juniors have got the benefit, the same by itself cannot be a ground for extending the same benefit to the claimants.

Judgment :-

S.B. Sinha, J.

Applicability of the doctrine of `equal pay for equal work is in question in these appeals.

They arise out of the final judgment and order dated 20th December, 2001 passed by a Division Bench of the Punjab & Haryana High court at Chandigarh in C.W.P. No.6780 of 1999 whereby and whereunder the writ petition filed on behalf of the respondents has been allowed.

Respondents herein were appointed in different capacities by the Public Health Department of the State of Punjab. They were admittedly appointed as daily wager. Only some of them were appointed after their names were requisitioned from the Employment Exchange. No recruitment process was followed. Constitutional norm of equality contained in Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution of India had not been adhered to. They were paid wages in terms of the offer of appointment made to them. Their names were being maintained in the Muster Roll.

Inter alia, on the premise that the respondents have put in a number of years of service and they were entitled to the benefit of equal pay for equal work, they filed several writ applications.

By reason of the impugned judgment, the said writ applications were allowed.

Relying on or on the basis of a Full Bench decision of the said Court in Ranbir Singh vs. State of Haryana [1998 (2) Service Cases Today 189], the High Court opined:

" In view of the fact that petitioners who are similarly situated like the present petitioners have been granted the relief, we see no reason to deny the relief to the petitioners even in these petitions. The petitioners have admittedly worked for a considerable period in the department of the State Government continuously uninterrupted and to the satisfaction of all concerned. The State itself is paying different salary on monthly basis to these persons, to some the minimum wages and to some on the basis of the Common Scheduled Rates. We see no reason why the petitioners should not be placed at parity to the limited extent that they should be entitled to the minimum of the pay scale with deafness allowance alone as granted by the Honble Apex Court in the recent cases.

Another factor which we have to notice is that some of the petitioners had not even completed a period of (sic) pronounced by the State dated January 23, 2001. In fact, few of them were employed in the year 1996 and 1997, as such we find it difficult to grant them the relief as aforenoticed even on the date of institution of the writ petitions.

It would be just, fair and equitable that the petitioners are granted minimum of the pay scale with dearness allowance alone from the date of the judgment, while the other petitioners would be entitled to the same relief from the date of filing the present petition. The interest claimed by the petitioner is not founded on any reasonable grounds and for the reasons stated in the case of Vijay Kumar (supra), we decline the prayer of the petitioners for grant of interest.

Mr. Shyam Divan, learned Senior Counsel appearing on behalf of the appellants would contend that the High Court committed a serious error in passing the impugned judgment insofar as it failed to take into consideration that the principle of `equal pay for equal work should not be applied automatically. Drawing our attention to various decisions of this Court, it was urged for the purpose of applicability of the said doctrine, the court is not only required to look to the pleadings of the parties but also must arrive at a decision that all the ingredients therefor are established. It was urged that the principle of `equal pay for equal work is not only dependent upon the nature, quality and quantity of the work but equal value therefor. A large number of factors are relevant for the purpose of grant of relief in terms of the said doctrine. For the said purpose, the court must not only arrive at the equal identity of group but also the complete and wholesale identity.

Mr. Manoj Swarup and Mr. Nidhesh Gupta, learned Coun