Retrospective withdrawal of accrued financial benefits under the 5th CPC without proper legislative authority violates principles of natural justice and the rule of law, affecting vested rights and entitlements.

JUDGMENT :

ANANYA BANDYOPADHYAY, J.

1. The petitioners, who are presently discharging duties in the posts of Constable and Head Constable under the Railway Protection Force (RPF), Metro Railway, Kolkata, function under the supervisory jurisdiction of the Inspector General-cum-Chief Security Commissioner, RPF, Eastern Railway. The petitioners assert that they have been subjected to a continuous financial disadvantage owing to arbitrary and retrospective interpretation of pay fixation norms by the respondent Railway authorities.

2. It had been the emphatic grievance of the petitioners, upon their initial appointment, they were extended the benefit of two advance increments in accordance with the recommendations of the 4th Central Pay Commission (CPC). These increments were granted in recognition of specific recruitment policies that formed part of their service terms. Additionally, the petitioners claimed eligibility to bunching benefits, which were intended to mitigate disparities arising due to overlapping pay stages between the pre-revised and revised pay scales.

3. However, with the advent of the 5th Central Pay Commission, effective from 01.01.1996, the petitioners submit that the respondent Railway authorities engaged in an erroneous and retrospectively punitive revision of pay, whereby the two advance increments previously granted were unilaterally adjusted and deducted. This adjustment was carried out pursuant to a Railway Board Circular dated 27.03.2002, which was further circulated vide letter dated 30.01.2004 by the Chief Personnel Officer, Eastern Railway. The impugned circular misinterpreted the recommendations of the 5th CPC and directed deduction of benefits previously sanctioned under the 4th CPC, thereby nullifying the financial gain already accrued to the petitioners. The Circular, thus, resulted in a reduction of the revised pay post-implementation of the 5th CPC.

4. The petitioners further urged vide communication dated 04.12.1997, the pay of the petitioners was revised and upgraded to Rs. 3050-4590 in view of the 5^th CPC. However, despite such upgradation, the benefit of the two advance increments was not restored, nor was there a proper reflection of the bunching benefit to which the petitioners were entitled. This omission not only contradicted the spirit of the 5th CPC recommendations but also violated the expressed instructions of the Railway Board’s own circular dated 30.01.2001, issued through the Executive Director (Pay Commission), Railway Board.

5. The petitioners forwarded timely and repeated representations, first on 21.08.2013 and thereafter before the Financial Adviser & Chief Accounts Officer (FA & CAO), Metro Railway, Kolkata, seeking redressal of the anomaly and correction of their pay fixation. The respondent authorities, however, rejected their representation without offering a reasoned or statutory justification, instead citing the impugned Railway Board circular of 2002.

6. Thereafter, seeking transparency and explanation for such deduction of their financial entitlements, the petitioners filed a request under the Right to Information Act, 2005. In response, vide letter dated 12.11.2013, the respondent authorities furnished a note which unequivocally stated that the formula advanced by the petitioners could not be accepted as the two advance increments granted under the 4th CPC had been adjusted during fixation under the 5th CPC based on the 2002 circular.

7. The petitioners argued this retrospective adjustment of already accrued benefits was not only arbitrary but al