Judicial Analysis Court Copy Headnote Facts Arguments Court observation

2025 Supreme(HP) 1597

IN THE HIGH COURT OF HIMACHAL PRADESH AT SHIMLA
Ranjan Sharma, J.
Jayanti Rathore and others - Appellant
Versus
State of Himachal Pradesh and others - Respondent
CWPOA No.3103 of 2020
Decided On : 19-11-2025

Advocate Appeared:
For the Appellant :Mr. A.K. Gupta and Mr. Bonit, Advocates.
For the Respondents:Mr. Navlesh Verma, Additional Advocate General

Daily wagers granted work charge status after 8 years service entitled only to notional pay fixation benefits prospectively, without past arrears; such arrears to others deemed excess and recoverable; no parity claimable among irregularly appointed employees.

Headnote:(A) Constitution of India - Articles 14 and 16 - Daily wagers - Work charge status - Upon completion of 8 years continuous daily waged service, entitled to work charge status with notional benefits of pay fixation in applicable scale from due date with annual increments till regularization, but without past arrears - Past arrears released to others held as excess amounts liable to recovery - No claim for parity or discrimination as appointments not regular, made dehors constitutional scheme of public employment - Supreme Court judgments declaring such law operate retrospectively unless specified prospective. (Paras 6(i), 6(ii), 6(iii), 6(iv))

(B) Notional benefits - Encompass presumptive pay fixation benefits prospectively from due date, excluding any past arrears accrual - Relief limited to safeguard state exchequer from burden of extra benefits to irregularly appointed employees. (Paras 6(i), 6(iii))

(C) Retrospective operation of judgments - Law declared by Supreme Court inherently retrospective, applying mutatis mutandis to all similar cases; no negative parity to perpetuate illegality. (Para 6(iv))

Facts of the case:
Petitioners engaged as daily wagers w.e.f. 01.01.1996, services regularized in December 2006, granted work charge status retrospectively w.e.f. 01.01.2004 (petitioners 1 and 2) and w.e.f. 01.01.2005 (petitioners 3 to 6), but denied past arrears of pay and allowances from due dates, while granted to others; state policy opposed arrears to non-petitioners.

Findings of Court:
Work charge status and notional benefits affirmed; state to extend notional pay fixation with increments if not already done; claim for past arrears wholly declined.

Issues: Whether daily wagers granted work charge status entitled to past arrears from due date; whether parity claimable with others who received arrears; retrospective applicability of Supreme Court mandates limiting relief to notional benefits.

Ratio Decidendi: Daily wagers not regularly appointed per constitutional ethos entitled only to notional benefits upon work charge status to protect state finances; arrears claims impermissible, even if previously paid as excess recoverable; no parity among irregularly appointed, uniformity enforced by Supreme Court declarations with retrospective effect. Result : Petition disposed of affirming work charge status and notional benefits without past arrears; parties to bear respective costs.

Table of Content
1. daily wagers claim arrears from work-charge status date. (Para 1 , 2)
2. state denies arrears to non-petitioners; no rebuttal. (Para 3 , 4)
3. work-charge status with notional benefits affirmed per sc. (Para 5 , 6)
4. petition disposed granting notional benefits only. (Para 7 , 8)

JUDGMENT :
Ranjan Sharma, Judge

Petitioners, Jayanti Rathore and five others initially filed an Original Application No 566 of 2017 before Learned State Administrative Tribunal and upon abolition of the Tribunal, the matter came to be transferred to this Court, as CWPOA No 3103 of 2020, seeking the following reliefs:-

“That the respondents may be ordered to given entire arrears to the applicants from the dates they have been given work charge status till their services were regularized.”

FACTUAL MATRIX:

2. Grievance is that petitioners were engaged as Beldar in the Irrigation and Public Health Division No-II, Shimla (now Jal Shakti Vibhag) w.e.f. 01.01.1996 and their services were regularized in the month of December 2006. They were granted work charge status retrospectively w.e.f. 01.01.2004 [in case of petitioners 1 and 2] and w.e.f. 01.01.2005 [in case of petitioners 3 to 6], but the consequential benefits, including the past arrears of pay and allowances have not been released to them from due date [01.01.2004/01.01.2005] when, past arrears have been given to others which is discriminatory, arbitrary and illegal.

STAND OF STATE AUTHORITIES IN REPLY- AFFIDAVIT:

3. Pursuant to the issuance of notice on 08.11.2017, the State Authorities filed the Reply- Affidavit dated 23.10.2020 of Superintending Engineer Jal Shakti Circle, Kasumpti, Shimla.

3(i). Reply-Affidavit states that State Government had taken a decision on 23.07.2015 [Annexure R-1], not to give any arrears to those persons who were granted work charge status being non petitioners or who had not filed any case before a judicial forum. It is averred that the pay of the petitioners has been refixed from the due date of grant of work charge status but the claim of the petitioners for past arrears has been opposed on the ground, that the petitioners have not filed any petition in a judicial forum and being non-petitioners, they were not entitled for past arrears. In this backdrop, a prayer has been made for dismissing the writ petition.

NO REBUTTAL BY PETITIONER:

4. Petitioners have not filed any rejoinder to rebut the stand taken by the State Authorities in Reply-Affidavit.

5. Heard, Mr. A.K. Gupta, Advocate, with by Mr. Bonit, Advocate for the petitioner and Mr. Navlesh Verma, Learned Additional Advocate General for the respondents-State.

ANALYSIS:

6. Taking into account the entirety of the facts and circumstances and the material on record this Court is of the considered view, that claim of the petitioner for work charge status [already stands granted] is affirmed and the claim for release of notional pay fixation benefits from the date of conferment of work charge status [already stands granted] whereas the claim of the petitioners for past arrears accruing from the date of grant of work charge status is declined, for the following reasons:-

ENTITLEMENT OF DAILY WAGERS FOR WORK CHARGE STATUS WITH NOTIONAL BENEFITS AFFIRMED:

6(i). Issue as to whether daily wagers, upon conferment of work charge status are to be given consequential benefits and to what extent stands answered by the Honble Supreme Court in State of Himachal Pradesh and others versus Ashwani Kumar , decided on 10.05.2018 [Civil Appeal No 5753 of 2019 decided on 22.07.2019] and reinforced in the case of State of Himachal Pradesh and others versus Surajmani and others along with other connected matters in [Civil Appeal No.1595 of 2025, decided on 06.02.2025], entitling the daily wagers for work charge status from the date of completion of 8 years of continuous daily waged service but the consequential relief(s) were limited to “notional benefits”, in the following terms:-

“8. However, in order to allay the apprehension of the St

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