IMPORTANT POINT
Temporary employees performing similar duties as regular employees are entitled to equal pay, as established by the Supreme Court.

ORDER :

This writ petition is filled under Article 226 of the Constitution of India for the following relief:

“…..to issue a writ order or direction more particularly one in the nature of Writ of Mandamus declaring the action of the respondents in not extending the time scale to the petitioners in their respective cadre on par with the regular employees as per the judgment of Apex Court reported in (2017) 1 SCC 148 and proceedings of the 2 respondent in Rc.No.A1/1102643/29/2022, dated 1.8.2022 as bad, illegal, arbitrary improper, unjust, violative of Article 14, 16 and 21 of Constitution of India and consequently direct the respondents to extend the minimum time scale PRC 2022 to the petitioners and to grant all consequential service and monetary benefits and pass …”

2. The facts of the case are that the petitioners No.1 to 3 herein were appointed on 2008, 2009 and 2010 respectively on Petty Supervisory charges and they have completed 10 years of service and even their cases are recommended by the Executive Officer of the 3rdrespondent temple for payment of Minimum wages on par with the regular employees vide proceedings in Rc. No.A1/1656/2019 dated 6-12-2019, Rc. No.E1/653/2019 dated 5-7-2019 and Rc. No.A1/1656/2019 dated 17-8-2019 and the same are pending. It is stated that, as on today, the petitioners are paid as follows

It is further stated that the petitioners are eligible for payment on par with the regular employees as per the law laid down by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in Jagjit Singh Vs. State of Punjab, 2017 (1) SCC 148 as the petitioners are performing the duties assigned to regular employees, and further, the petitioners possess the required qualification to hold the posts on par with the regular employees. As such, the petitioners are eligible for extension of minimum time scale in the 3rdrespondent on par with the regular employees. Further the work in the temple is perennial in nature as such the petitioners are eligible for payment of equal pay equal work on par with the regular employees. It is further stated that Petitioners services are equal to that of the regular employees, there is no differences between the services rendered by the petitioners with relation to the duties, functions and responsibilities as such, petitioners are eligible for the extension of time scale attached to the respective post as per the decision of Hon'ble Apex Court reported in 2017(1) SCC 148. It is further stated that in the similar circumstances this Hon'ble Court has granted interim orders in W.P.No.38513 of 2018 and W.P.No.38820 of 2018 to the employees working on P.S. Charges, hence the petitioners stand on the similar footing as such they are entitled for minimum time scale in their respective cadre basing on the Apex court and this Hon'ble Court orders. It is further stated that the petitioners have filed W.P. No.13641 of 2020 before this Hon'ble Court declaring the action of the respondents herein in not extending the 2015 time scale to them in their respective cadre on par with regular employees as per the Judgment of Apex Court reported in 2017(1) SCC 148 and for other reliefs and the said writ petition is pending.

While the matter stood thus, during pending the above writ petition, the 2ndrespondent has issued proceedings in Rc. No.A1/11026(43)/29/2022 dated 1-8-2022 wherein instructions were given to the Executive Officers of major Temple and other 6(a) Temples in the state to revise the minimum time scale of pay of the corresponding scales in P.R.C. 2022 to the N.M.R. Contract / Consolidated employees of their respective temples, who were already extended the benefit minimum time scale of PRC 2015 to pay without allowances, as per the instructions of the Governmen