IMPORTANT POINT
An employer would be entitled to correct a mistake in fixing pay of its employee.

JUDGMENT

ANIL R. DAVE, J.

1. Leave granted.

2. Being aggrieved by the Judgment delivered in Civil Writ Petition No.7006-CAT of 2003 dated 20th March, 2008 by the High Court of Punjab and Haryana at Chandigarh, this appeal has been filed by the employer – Union Territory of Chandigarh and others.

3. The facts giving rise to the present litigation in a nut-shell are as under:

The respondent was appointed as a Clerk by the appellant Chandigarh Transport Undertaking on the quota reserved for ex-servicemen. The respondent had rendered his services to the Indian Army as a Combatant Clerk upto 31st January, 1990, till the date when he was discharged from the Indian Army. Upon his appointment as a Clerk under an office order dated 2nd September, 1992, his pay had been fixed and he was paid his salary accordingly. Only when he retired in 1997, it was brought to the notice of the employer, on getting an audit query, that his salary had been wrongly fixed under the order dated 2nd September, 1992. The mistake committed in pay fixation had been rectified by an order dated 13th October, 1998.

4. Being aggrieved by the re-fixation of his pay, the respondent had made several representations but as no change was effected by the appellant- employer in the pay so re-fixed, the respondent had approached the Central Administrative Tribunal (hereinafter referred to as ‘ the Tribunal’) by filing Original Application No.975/CH/2000. The said OA had been dismissed by the Tribunal by an order dated 4th January, 2002. Being aggrieved by the order rejecting the aforestated O.A., the respondent-employee had approached the High Court by filing the aforestated petition which has been allowed by an order dated 20th March, 2008 and being aggrieved by the said order and judgment, this appeal has been filed by the employer.

5. The learned counsel for the appellant had explained the circumstances in which the appellant was constrained to re-fix pay of the respondent so as to rectify the mistake committed while passing the pay fixation order dated 2nd September, 1992. The learned counsel had taken us through the relevant regulations with regard to pay fixation of re-employed pensioners and had taken us through the provisions of the Central Civil Services (Fixation of pay of Re-employed Pensioners) Orders, 1986 (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Orders’) under which pay of the respondent ought to have been fixed.

6. The learned counsel for the appellant had submitted that there were several different notifications and orders in relation to the pay fixation of re-employed pensioners, including ex-servicemen. So as to see that all the orders are available at one place, the orders had been compiled and notified in 1986 so that pay of the re-employed pensioners can be fixed only upon looking at the provisions of the compilation of the Orders instead of looking at several different orders or notifications which had been issued from time to time. Thus, according to the learned counsel, a comprehensive compilation of all the relevant orders, which had been issued from time to time and which were operative in 1996 was duly considered for the purpose of re-fixation of the pay of the respondent.

7. As the respondent had been given appointment on 15th April, 1990 as a Clerk on a post reserved for the ex-servicemen, the provisions of the Orders were to be looked into for the purpose of pay fixation of the respondent. The learned counsel had further submitted that while fixing the pay on 2nd September, 1992, the appellant did not look into the certain provisions of the Orders and an option exercised by the respondent in relation to his pay fixation and therefore, incorrect pay had been fixed under the order dated 2nd September, 1992. By virtue of the said pay fixation, the respondent was given benefit of his past services rendered to the Indian Army and accordingly, he was also given increments which he would have got in the Indian Army. As a result thereof, the respondent’s pay was fi