Tapen Sen, J.

1. Heard Mr. N.N. Tiwari, learned counsel for the petitioners and Mr. A.K. Mehta, learned counsel appearing on behalf of the respondents.

2. In this writ application, the petitioners have prayed for quashing the office order of the Ranchi University issued under Memo No. B/968-971, dated 9.3.1995 by the Registrar of the said University as contained at Annexure-7 whereby and whereunder the scale of the petitioners which they were drawing for the last so many months was reduced and down graded without giving any opportunity of hearing and without any notice. The petitioners have further prayed that the respondents be directed to make payment of the revised scale of pay to which the petitioners were entitled and which they were drawing prior to passing of the impugned office order. The petitioners have also made a prayer for payment of arrears of the difference of salary which was stopped all of a sudden from November, 1994 together with interest.

3. The case of the petitioners is that they are all non-teaching staff of the Ranchi Womens College and are holding Class-III sanctioned post of Assistants. According to the petitioners, earlier there were two types of post of Assistants namely Lower Division Assistant and Upper Division Assistant which led to an anomalous situation in relation to the pay scales etc. Consequently, on 27.01.1982, the Government of Bihar, Department of Education issued a letter under Memo No.--91, dated 27.1.1982 addressed to all Vice Chancellors of the State of Bihar except the Patna University wherein while referring to an earlier letter of the Department of Education dated 29.9.1980, it was informed that the State Government had decided to give a unified scale of pay to the Upper Division and Lower Division posts and this decision which the State Government had taken in relation to Patna University should be deemed to apply to other Universities also.

4. Subsequently, by letter dated 5.8.1989, issued under Memo No. 1173, the Department of Human Resources Development, Government of Bihar again wrote a letter to the Vice Chancellors of all the Universities of the State of Bihar except Patna University wherein while referring to the subject of unification of scales of pay of the upper and lower grades of Class-III employees, it was intimated that on the basis of an agreement reached between the University and the College Karamchari Sangh on 26.4.1989, it had been decided that approval in relation to the subject matter of the letter dated 17.8.1985 and 19.8.1985 would soon be issued. So far as the letter dated 19.8.1985 was concerned, Clause A thereof was quoted at paragraph-2 and it was stated that the merger of pay scales of employees in Class-III posts of the University and Colleges would be made applicable with effect from 1.4.1981 in the same manner as was made applicable to the Secretarial Staff and the upper and lower grade employees working in the regional offices. It was, however, decided that on the basis of such merger, the employees would not be entitled to any arrears of pay at all. Finally, while referring to the letter dated 27.1.1982, it was stipulated that all employees working in the Universities of the State who were either in the higher grade or the lower grade would have a unified pay scale as per letter dated 27.1.1982 and the same would be made applicable to the constituent colleges of the Universities also. At paragraph--4 of the same letter, it was indicated that such unified scales would be made applicable with effect from 1.7.1981 but no arrears would be payable.

5. It appears that pursuant to the aforementioned two letters of the appropriate department of the Government of Bihar, the Registrar, Ranchi University issued office order on 25.4.1990 which was issued under Memo No. RU- VC/4120-21 (Annexure-3). In that office order, the Registrar refers to the letter of the Government dated 5.10.1989 (Annexure-2 above) and states that all higher and lower Assistants/Cl