The main legal point established in the judgment is that complete and total identity between contract employees and regular employees is required to claim equal pay for equal work.

JUDGMENT :

KULDIP SINGH, J.

1. The Petitioner has prayed mainly the following reliefs in the petition:

(a) Quash Annexure A-1 being issued illegally and arbitrarily;

(b) Quash the condition contained in HP Civil Services (Revised Pay) Rules, 1998, which does not make the new pay scales applicable to the contract employees being arbitrary, illegal and unconstitutional inasmuch as it creates unreasonable classifications amongst the employees discharging similar nature of duties and has no nexus with the object sought to be achieved;

(c) Quash the impugned action of the Respondents whereby they are not allowing the pay scale of Rs. 5480/- plus other allowance to the applicant, in the revised scale of Rs. 5480-8925/- on the principle of equal pay for equal work, being arbitrary, malafide and illegal;

(d) Direct the Respondents to pay at least the minimum of the scale in the Revised Pay Scale with DA etc and other allowances for the same post held by the regular counterparts, i.e.; Lecturer, to the applicant w.e.f. date of their initial appointments along with arrears and interest @ 18% thereon and all other consequential benefits;

(e) Direct the Respondents to pay the salary for the period of vacations/holidays to the applicant and also pay salary for six days casual leave;

(f) Direct the Respondents to pay Medical Allowance to the applicant w.e.f. initial appointment along with interest @ 18% thereon till the payment of the same;

(g) Restrain the Respondents permanently from effecting the recovery from the applicant of the amount already paid to the applicant and repay the amount if already recovered arbitrarily and illegally;

(h) Direct the Respondents to produce all the relevant documents along with their reply for perusal by this Hon'ble Tribunal;

2. The brief facts of the case are that Petitioner was engaged as TGT (Arts) on contract basis vide Officer Order dated 02.12.1996 at fixed salary of Rs. 1650/- plus allowance per month. He continued as such. The Petitioner is performing the duties equal to the regular counterparts. The qualification for regular appointment and contract appointment is the same and Petitioner is possessing the requisite qualification. The pay scale for regular hand for the same post as per 1998 Revised Pay Rules is Rs. 5480-8925/-. On the contrary, the Petitioner was being paid Rs. 1650/- plus allowance for similar job which after revision of pay scale for Lecturer is fixed Rs. 8178/- and for DPE Rs. 7576/-.

3. At the time of initial engagement of the Petitioner, there was a specific stipulation in the agreement that Petitioner shall be paid monthly honorarium equal to the basic pay in the pay scale of Rs. 1650/- fixed plus other allowances admissible at the station on the basic pay including HRA and CCA. It has been alleged that initial pay was thus equal to the scale of the regular hand in the pre-revised scale. On revision of the pay scale, Petitioner was entitled for revised scale of Rs. 5480/- plus other allowances at the station including HRA and CCA. But the Petitioner was not fixed on such scale, rather, he was fixed as per formula evolved by the Respondents.

4. The Respondent-department has now formulated a different formula for giving DA to contract teachers vide memo dated 07.08.2002 vide which it was decided that the contract teachers would be paid basic pay minimum of the pre-revised pay scale of the post, DA at the rate of 203% which was being paid prior to the issuance of Finance Department letter dated 08.11.1999, interim relief first, second and third installments and other allowances as admissible in the respective areas. The new formula will adversely affect the salary being paid to Petitioner and shall cause financial loss without affording an opportunity to the Petitioner of being heard before resorting to new formula. It has been alleged that directions have been issued to the District Treasury Officer, who are now going to give effect to these instructions thereby reducing salary of the Pe