This writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution has been filed by the Assam Financial Corporation Employees Union, which is an association of employees of the Assam Financial Corporation registered under the Trade Union Act, 1926, for appropriate reliefs with regard to revision of scales of pay of some of the employees of the Assam Financial Corporation (for short the AFC).

2. The facts briefly are that the Assam Pay Commission, 1988, made some recommendations on revision of pay scales of the employees of the State Public Sector Units of the State of Assam. The said recommendation were accepted by the State Govt and were circulated by letter dated 21.10.91 of the Govt of Assam Finance (Pay Research Unit) Department to the different departments of Govt of Assam for the purpose of implementation by the State Public Sector Units under their administrative control. The AFC implemented the said recommendations of Assam Pay Commission, 1988 and the employees of the AFC received revised 'pay as per the said recommendations of the Assam Pay Commission, 1988. But thereafter, the employees of the AFC submitted a representation that the employees of other Public Sector Undertakings of the State of Assam such as the Assam Industrial Development Corporation (for short the AIDC) performing identical nature of duties and work were getting higher scales of pay and that the scales of pay of the employees of the AFC may be increased aecordingly. The Board of Directors of the AFC in its 246th meeting held on 3.2.92 considered the said representation and decided to form a Sub Committee to go into the details of the Pay Commission's Report vis-a-vis the representation. The Sub Committee submitted its report on 28.5.92 suggesting higher scales of pay of the employees belonging to the managerial cadres of the AFC. The recommendations of the Sub Committee were considered by the Board of Directors of the AFC in its 248th meeting held on 28.5.92. The Board of Directors approved the said recommendations and decided that steps should be taken to complete the necessary formalities to implement the recommendations. Thereafter, the Managing Director of the AFC wrote a letter dated 176.92 to the Financial Commissioner, Govt of Assam, seeking approval of the proposal of the Board of Directors for increasing the scales, of pay of the aforesaid employees as per the said recommendations but by letter dated 4.7.92 issued by the Officer on Special Duty (Pay Research Unit), the Managing Director, AFC, was informed that the Govt in the Finance Department was of the opinion that the proposal for increase in the scales of pay in the letter dated 17.6.92 of the Managing Director is not tenable in view of its likely impact on the scales of pay of other State Govt Corporations/Boards. Aggrieved, the petitioner has filed this writ petition with a prayer to quash the letter dated 4.7.95 of the Officer on Special Duty. Finance (Pay Research Unit) Department has prayed for a Mandamus directing the respondents-authorities to implement the recommendations of the said Sub Committee for revision of the scales of pay of different categories of employees of the AFC.

3. At the hearing, Mr. R. C|ogpi, learned counsel foijthe petitioner, contended that under section 23 of the State Financial Corporation's Act, 1951 (for short the SFC Act), the AFC has the power to fix the remuneration payable to its employees by regulation and in exercise of the said powers, the AFC has made the Assam Financial Corporation Staff Regulations., 1957 (for short the Staff Regulations) Mr. Gogoi further pointed out that the Staff Regulations have been made with the previous sanction of the State Govt of Assam as provided in section 48 of the SFC Act. Regulation 65 of the Staff Regulations provided that except as provided in the Staff Regulations or as may be prescribed by the Board, the pay and allowances of the employees shall be regulated in accordance with the provisions of Appendices I and II t