The main legal point established is that a senior cannot be paid lesser salary than the junior, and the department is bound to step up the pay of the senior on par with his junior for the purpose of rectifying the anomaly.

ORDER :

1. The petitioner herein seeks rectification of the pay anomaly of himself and his junior Mrs. S. Malathi, wherein his junior is drawing higher scale than that of the petitioner.

2. The brief facts of the case is as follows:-

While the petitioner joined the services of Thimiri Panchayat Union School as Secondary Grade Teacher (SGT) on 18.08.1988, his junior joined as SGT on 18.01.1989 in the same School. The petitioner was promoted as Primary School Head Master in the same school on 21.11.2004 and his junior was promoted as Primary School Head Master in Thimiri Panchayat Union School on 21.02.2005. Likewise, while the petitioner was promoted to the post of B.T. Assistant on 05.03.2007, his junior was promoted as B.T. Assistant on 16.08.2010. At this juncture, the petitioner’s junior was granted a special grade of pay. Thereafter on 19.09.2011, both the petitioner, as well as his junior, were promoted to the posts of B.T. Head Master/Head Mistress. At this point, there arose a pay anomaly between them. When the petitioner herein had sought for rectification of this pay anomaly, the same came to be rejected by the second respondent herein through his proceedings dated 09.09.2015, stating that the petitioner’s scale of pay in the lower and higher posts are not identical as that of his junior, by placing reliance on Clause 5 (ii) of the G.O. (Ms) No.25, Personnel and Administrative Reforms (FR. IV), dated 23.03.2015 and therefore, the rectification of the anomaly was not possible. Challenging the Clause 5 (ii) of the G.O. (Ms) No.25, Personnel and Administrative Reforms (FR.IV), dated 23.03.2015, as well as the order of the second respondent dated 09.09.2015, the present Writ Petition has been filed.

3. Heard Mr. R.Natarajan, learned counsel for the petitioner and Mr.T. Chezhiyan, learned Additional Government Pleader appearing on behalf of the respondents.

4. In the instances, when there is pay anomaly between pay scales of a senior and junior, in the services of the Government of Tamil Nadu, Fundamental Rule 22-B provides for stepping up the pay of the senior on par with his junior for the purpose of rectifying the anomaly. This position came to be ratified by the Hon’ble Supreme Court in the case of Gurcharan Singh Grewal and another V. Punjab State Electricity Board and others reported in 2009 (3) SCC 94. A Hon’ble Division Bench of this Court in the case of R. Ramaraj Vs. The Registrar General, High Court of Judicature at Madras and another reported in 2014 SCC Online Mad 8740 had placed reliance on Fundamental Rules and by relying on the decision of the Hon’ble Supreme Court in Gurcharan Singh Grewal’s case (supra), had held that rectifying of the anomaly of scales between junior and senior is beyond doubt. This Court had an occasion to deal with the similar issue by placing reliance on the aforesaid decisions in the case of D. Ramasamy V. The Secretary to the Government, School Education Department, Fort St. George, Chennai-9 and 3 others in W.P.No.24505 of 2014 dated 30.09.2022 and had held as follows:

“3. In service jurisprudence, it is a settled proposition of law that when two Government employees hold the same post, the senior cannot be paid lesser salary than the junior and in case the junior is getting higher pay, the department is bound to step up the pay of the senior on par with his junior, with effect from the date on which the anomaly arose. In this case, the anomaly arose on 20.07.2008 and therefore, the petitioner herein would be entitled for revision of his pay scale on par with his junior with effect from 20.07.2008.

4. This issue of bringing the senior’s pay scale on par with the junior is fortified under Fundamental Rule 22B, which came up for consideration before the Hon’ble Division Bench of this Court in the case of R.Ramaraj Vs. The Registrar General, High Court of Judicature at Madras and another reported in 2014 SCC Online Mad 8740 and by placing reliance on this Fundamental Rule, the Division Be