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High Court of Calcutta
Anandamoy Bhattacharjee, Samir Kumar Mookherjee, JJ.
Secretary – Appellant
Versus
West Bengal Judicial Service Association – Respondent
F.M.A.T. 1833 of 1989
Decided On : May 16, 1991
HIGHER JUDICIAL SERVICE - PARITY WITH INDIAN ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICE - PAY SCALE, BENEFITS, AND QUALIFYING SERVICE - ENTITLEMENT - DOCTRINE OF PROMISSORY ESTOPPEL - APPLICABILITY.
Fact of the Case:
The West Bengal Higher Judicial Service (WBHJS) was constituted in 1949 with the decision to treat its members at par with the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) in terms of pay scale and other benefits. However, the WBHJS members were denied certain benefits, including the super-time scale of pay and reduction in qualifying service for the junior administrative grade, which were granted to the IAS members in 1986.
Finding of the Court:
The court held that the decision to treat WBHJS members at par with IAS members was a policy decision that had been acted upon for a long time, and thus became enforceable under Article 309 of the Constitution. The court also held that the doctrine of promissory estoppel applied, as the WBHJS members had refrained from asserting their demands for examination by the Pay Commission based on the promise of parity with the IAS.
Issues: 1. Whether the decision to treat WBHJS members at par with IAS members was enforceable, despite the absence of a formal executive order. 2. Whether the doctrine of promissory estoppel applied in this case.
Ratio Decidendi: 1. The court relied on the Supreme Court decisions in Santram v. State of Rajasthan and V. T. Khanzode v. R. B. I. .and Ors. to hold that administrative instructions and notifications issued by the government can supplement the procedure relating to service matters, even in the absence of statutory rules or legislative provisions. 2. The court held that the doctrine of promissory estoppel applies when a promise is made and the promisee suffers a detriment by altering his position in reliance on the promise. In this case, the WBHJS members had refrained from asserting their demands for examination by the Pay Commission, which constituted a detriment.
Final Decision: The court allowed the appeal, quashing the part of the government order that fixed the date of retrospective operation of the benefits from 5th September 1987 to 1st January 1986. The court also directed that the period of entitlement to the junior administrative grade for WBHJS members be the same as that for IAS members, i.e., 5 years from the date of entry to the senior scale of pay.
A.M. Bhattacharjee, J.
1. MY learned brother Mookherjee, J., and 1 have discussed the matter in all its aspects and agreed with each other. Because of the great confidence that 1 have in my learned brother, 1 requested him to prepare the judgment and 1 thought that 1 would be adding a few words of mine on some of the important points involved in this appeal. But after going through the judgment prepared by Mookherjee, J., 1 have felt that in view of the weight of reasons in and all-comprehensiveness of the judgment, any further words from me would be an idle and useless parade. 1, therefore, express my unreserved concurrence in the judgment of my learned brother, appearing hereinafter and do not propose to come out with a separate note as 1 find nothing which 1 can usefully add.
2. S.K. Mookherjee, J.- The present Appeal is directed against the judgment and order passed by a learned single Judge of this Court, on 10th of March, 1989. By the said order the learned single Judge allowed the application under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, preferred on behalf of the respondents nos. 1 to 6 to the present appeal, by directing the State, Government inter alia to confer certain benefits, in the forms of scales of pay, such as, senior time-scale of pay, selection grade of pay, super-time scale of pay and special pay, by reducing the number of years of qualifying service for junior administrative grade, by granting house-rent allowance, dearness allowance and other financial allowances, in the same manner as were being received by the members of the Indian Administrative Service with effect, from 1st January, 1986. In the present appeal, the State of West Bengal represented by the Secretary, Department of Finance is the appellant. From the submissions made before us, the subject matter of controversy between the contesting parties, in the appeal, appears to be three-fold,, namely, (a) grant of super-time scale of pay, (b) reduction of the period of qualifying service for grant of junior administrative grade and (c) the date as fixed by the learned trial Judge with effect from which such benefits have been made available to the writ petitioners.
3. IN connection with (a) and (c) above, it is to be noted that financial benefits admittedly became, available from, 1.1.1986 to the members of then Indian Administrative Service with whom the members of the Higher Judicial Service are claimed to be at par and have, since the inception of the latter, been allegedly treated as such though in the case of the members of the West Bengal Higher Judicial Service such benefits were sought to have been conferred with effect from 5th of September, 1987. Regarding (b) the dispute appears to be that a member of Indian Administrative Service be- comes eligible to get junior administrative grade after completion of 9 years of service whereas a member of the West Bengal Higher Judicial Service acquires such eligibility after completion of 13 years of service and this disparity constitutes the second-fold of the controversy.
4. THE basic document to which the controversy, as indicated herein above, owes its origin is the Memorandum dated 26th October, 1987 being Numbered 27088-J/J4J-11/87 embodying the direction of the Governor, inter allies, for revision of super-time scale of pay of the members of the West Bengal Higher Judicial Service to Rs. 5900-200-6700 with effect from 5th September, 1987 and also fixing up the period of qualifying service for the junior administrative grade at 9 years from the date of one's promotion or appointment as the case may be.
The West Bengal Higher Judicial Service had been constituted in pursuance of the Cabinet decision dated 10th June, 1949 (Annexure 'A' to the Writ Petition Application, page 50 of the Paper Book). The approved proposal, inter alia, provided that the scale of pay of the service will be the same as the scale of pay of the Indian Administrative Service. The said decision of the Cabinet also
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