IMPORTANT POINT
Retrospective application of the MACP Scheme does not infringe upon the vested rights of employees under the ACP Scheme, as eligibility does not equate to entitlement.

JUDGMENT :

The above writ petition is filed challenging Exts.P7 order and for a direction to the 3^rd respondent to grant 2^nd financial upgradation under ACPS to the petitioners in the scale of PB 2 with grade pay of Rs.4,200/- with effect from the date of completion of 24 years.

2. Petitioners who are retired from General Reserve Engineer Force (GREF) during 2016-2022, have approached this Court aggrieved by the anomaly that was crept in the grant of 2^nd financial upgradation to the next grade pay in MACP scheme instead of scale of pay attached to the next higher post in the hierarchy under Assured Career Progression Scheme (hereinafter referred to as ‘ACP Scheme’). The service particulars of the petitioners given in the tabular form in the writ petition as Schedule A are as follows:

The Government introduced Ext.P1 ACP Scheme as per OM No.35034/1/97-Rstt(D) dated 09.08.1999 inter alia providing that the employees who are stagnated are eligible for two financial upgradation at the interval of 12 and 24 years. Ext.P1 scheme specifically provided under paragraph 7 that financial upgradation is granted to next higher grade in accordance with the existing hierarchy in a cadre/category of post without creating new post for the purpose. The scheme further provided that financial upgradation under ACP Scheme shall be purely personal to the employee and shall have no relevance in his seniority position. It is the case of the petitioners that they were given 1^st financial upgradation under Ext.P1 ACP Scheme and the petitioners who were in the scale of pay of LDC which carried a scale of pay of Rs.3050-4590 as per 5^th CPC were given scale of pay of Rs.4000-6000 attached to the post of UDC. When the 6^th pay commission regime came into force which was introduced with effect from 01.01.2006 a pay band system was introduced corresponding to the pre-existing scale of pay. While so the petitioners have completed 24 years of service and they become eligible for the 2^nd financial upgradation under Ext.P1 scheme and the details of date of completion of 24 years of service of the petitioners are detailed in Schedule C in the writ petition, which is extracted below:

While so the Government of India introduced Ext.P2 Modified Assured Career Progression Scheme (hereinafter referred to as ‘MACP Scheme’) as per OM No.35034/3/2008-Estt(D) dated 19.05.2009. As per the provisions of the MACP Scheme appended to the abovesaid Office Memorandum financial upgradation are admissible when a person spent 10 years continuously in the same grade pay and the scheme envisages only placement in the immediate next higher grade pay in the hierarchy of the recommended revised pay bands and grade pay as per CCS (Revised Pay) Rules, 2008. It is the contention of the petitioners that as per the ACP Scheme financial upgradation is given to the scale of pay attached to t