Punjab State Power Corporation Limited vs Bal Krishan Sharma

Judicial Analysis Court Copy Headnote Facts Arguments Court observation

2021 Supreme(SC) 849

SUPREME COURT OF INDIA
(From the High Court of Punjab & Haryana at Chandigarh)
UDAY UMESH LALIT, BELA M. TRIVEDI, JJ.
Punjab State Power Corporation Limited and Another – Appellants
Versus
Bal Krishan Sharma and Others – Respondents
Civil Appeal No. 6995 of 2021, Special Leave Petition (C) No. 9042 of 2019
Decided On : 23-11-2021

Advocates appeared:
For the Petitioner(s):Uttara Babbar, Manan Bansal, Advocates
For the Respondent(s):Vikas Mahajan, Vishal Mahajan, Vidit Anand, Vinod Sharma, Joydip Roy, Arun Singh, Advocates

Headnote:
Electricity (Supply) Act, 1948 – Section 79, 79(c) – Pay of Members of Service – Power to make regulations – Whether said office order was required to be published in Official Gazette as contemplated in Section 79 of said Act – Appeal is directed against judgment and order passed by Division Bench of High Court of Punjab and Haryana at Chandigarh in LPA No. 2062 of 2014 (O&M), whereby Division Bench has dismissed appeal filed by appellants-Punjab State Power Corporation Limited arising out of order passed by Single Bench – Held, Claim of respondents based on office order, for getting pay scale of next higher post of Assistant Engineer i.e. on completion of 9 years of their service and pay scale of another next higher post of Executive Engineer i.e on completion of their service, without assuming responsibilities of said promotional posts, was thoroughly misconceived – What they were entitled to, as per the scheme to alleviate the stagnation as contained in office order, was time bound promotional/devised promotional scale as indicated in Schedule drawn up by Board – Said Schedule had specified first time bound scale to be allowed of service as and second time bound scale to be allowed of service for post of Junior Engineer Grade-II (Civil), subject to pre-conditions mentioned therein – Same having already been granted to respondents, pay scales as claimed by the respondents in writ petition could not have been granted by High Court – Appeal allowed.

JUDGMENT :

BELA M. TRIVEDI, J.

1. Leave granted.

2. The present appeal is directed against the judgment and order dated 30.08.2018 passed by the Division Bench of the High Court of Punjab and Haryana at Chandigarh in LPA No. 2062 of 2014 (O&M), whereby the Division Bench has dismissed the appeal filed by the appellants-Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (previously Punjab State Electricity Board, hereinafter referred to as ‘PSEB’), arising out of the order dated 03.07.2014 passed by the Single Bench in CWP No. 3232 of 1993.

3. The PSEB in order to settle the issue of stagnation in various cadres of regular employees, had passed an office order on 19.07.1989 introducing a scheme to allow a time bound benefit of the higher scale on their completion of 9 and 16 years of services. In continuation of the said order, the PSEB also issued a circular dated 20.07.1989 granting the benefit of the first and second time bound higher scales to the employees including the Junior Engineers-II, as per the Schedule-I attached thereto, with effect from 01.05.1989. Since the PSEB had found that there was considerable stagnation in the cadre of Junior Engineers (Civil), it had referred the matter to the Pay Revision Committee. Keeping in view the recommendations of the said Pay Revision Committee, the PSEB passed an office order on 29.03.1990, upgrading 20% of the cadre posts of Junior Engineer-II (Civil) in the scale of Rs. 1640/3200 (revised) to that of Junior Engineer-I (Civil) in the scale of Rs. 1800/3500 with effect from 01.01.1986. Thereafter in continuation, consolidation and supersession of the orders dated 19.07.1989 and 29.03.1990, the PSEB vide the office order dated 23.04.1990 issued consolidated instructions to alleviate the problem of stagnation in the cadre. It was stated in the said order dated 23.04.1990 that the PSEB had decided to introduce the scheme to allow “time bound benefit of promotional scales” after completion of 9/16 years of regular service in the PSEB w.e.f. 01.01.1986 subject to the conditions mentioned therein. Some of the features of the scheme as contained in the said order dated 23.04.1990 were as under:

6. In case, an employee has already availed of the benefit of placement to the time bound promotional/devised promotional scales and is promoted to the next higher post, his pay would be fixed at the next stage in the same scale. In case he is promoted to a post which is lower than the scale in which he has already been placed on time bound promotional/devised promotional scale, he will not be entitled to any increment and continue to draw the pay of the scale in which he has already been placed.

7. In case of employees who do not fulfill the qualification/passing of examination essential for their promotion to the next higher post, they shall also be placed into the time promotional/devised promotional scale to be specified by the Board in the schedule as referred to in Para-5 (above).”

4. The Schedule-1 annexed to the said order dated 23.04.1990 particularly pertaining to the time bound scales of the Junior Engineer-II (Civil) read as under:

S. No.	Name of the lowest induction post through direct recruitment	Pay Scale	First time bound scale to be allowed after 9 years of service	2nd time bound scale to be allowed after 16 years of service	Remarks
1.
2.
3.
4.	JE-II (Civil)	1640-2925-3200	1800-3500	2200-40-2400-60-2700-75-3000-100-4000-125-4250	These 2 time bound higher Scale will be allowed if JE-II Qualifies the DAE FOR tech.
4.	JE-II (Civil)	1640-2925-3200	1800-3500	2200-40-2400-60-2700-75-3000-100-4000-125-4250	Subordinates otherwise he will be placed in the second time bound scale of 2100-3700

5. The said scale of pay of

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