The main legal point established in the judgment is that the revised pay scale for Staff Nurses should be applicable from the date of their regularization, and no recovery of any alleged excess payment can be made for Group-C staff.

JUDGMENT

S K Panigrahi, C. J. - This matter is taken up by video conferencing mode.

2. The present writ petitions have been filed challenging the order dated 7th February, 2019 passed by the Odisha Administrative Tribunal, Bhubaneswar (OAT) in a series of applications, where issues involved are identical in nature. Accordingly, all these writ petitions filed by the State of Odisha against the said orders are disposed of by this common order.

3. The common issue in all these writ petitions is whether the Opposite Parties, who are Staff Nurses, should get their revised pay scale, in terms of the Government Resolution issued on 26th June, 2013 prospectively, i.e. three years after their regularization or retrospectively, i.e. from the date of their regularization?

4. The OAT has answered the question in favour of the nurses and held that they would be entitled to the revised pay scale from the respective dates of their regularization. Consequently, the OAT quashed the clarification dated 17th May, 2015 issued by the Health & Family Welfare Department and an order dated 31st May, 2014 refixing the revised pay scale of the Opposite Parties as well as the letter dated 12th September, 2014 issued by the CDMO of various districts directing recovery of the excess payments. The OAT issued a positive direction to the Petitioner to pay the Opposite Parties the revised scale of pay in terms of the earlier order dated 1st March, 2014.

5. The background facts are that, each of the Opposite Parties was appointed as Staff Nurse on contractual basis. After completion of the contractual period of engagement, each of them was regularized in service in the scale of pay of Rs.5200- 20,200/- with a Grade Pay of Rs.2800/-.

6. Since they were not getting the salary component at par with their counterpart Staff Nurses in the Govt. of India, the Opposite Parties represented to the Petitioner. The matter of discrepancy in fixation of their salary was referred to the Anomaly Committee. After taking note of a comparative study of the entry level qualifications, service conditions, and the scale of pay in various states, the Anomaly Committee recommended upward revision of the pay scale and sent its proposal to the Petitioner State.

7. Acting on the said recommendation, in exercise of the power under Rule 9 of the Odisha Revision of Scale of Pay Rules, 2008 (ORSP Rules), the Petitioner restructured the pay scale for its Staff Nurses, but mandated that the revised pay scale would be payable on their completing three years of service in the regular scale of pay. The resolution dated 26th June, 2013 was issued to the above effect.

8. The question that then arose was whether the revised scale of pay would become payable only after completion of 3 years as regular Staff Nurse or would become payable from the date when the regularization in fact took place? Initially, the CDMOs understood the above resolution to mean that the revised pay scale would become available to the regular Nurses retrospectively from the date of their regularization. However, within a year on 17th May, 2014 the Health and Family Welfare Department issued a clarification stating that the revised pay scale would not have retrospective effect and that the resolution should be implemented from the date of its publication. Acting on this, the CDMOs issued fresh orders modifying the earlier instructions on the revision of the scale of pay, and across the board stating that it would be applicable only from 26th June, 2013. A further direction was issued on 31st May, 2014 that the excess dues already paid should be recovered from the salary of the Opposite Parties or they could opt to deposit the entire excess amount in one instalment.

9. This was then challenged before the OAT by the Opposite Parties by filing their respective applications. In the impugned order the OAT has noticed that there was nothing in the resolution dated 26th June, 2013 indicating that the revised pay would take effect only prospe