ORDER

Delivered by Hon’ble Devendra Chaudhry, Member (A) In the instant Original Application (O.A.), the 28 applicants have prayed for direction to the respondents to treat the Tailor Trade in which they have been appointed/promoted to be Skilled category and to pay the salary and emolument as admissible to the Skilled category in the Industrial Trade in the Ordnance Depots and to pay arrears of salary and as has been allowed by various benches of the Tribunal as well as the Hon'ble High Court as ratified by the Hon'ble Supreme Court.

2. It is submitted that in this OA, all the applicants except for the applicant No. 26, 27 & 28 were directly appointed as Tailor in the Ordnance Depot, Kanpur. The applicant Nos. 26, 27 & 28 were initially engaged in the Depot as Mazdoor and were promoted to Tailor Trade due to their expertise and requirement. All the applicants belong to Tailor Trade and have been carried out the Tailoring job for the Ordnance Branch and were initially appointed in the pay scale of Rs. 210-290/-, which position was existing upto 3rdCentral Pay Commission (C.P.C.). That, the Ministry of Defence in the year 1981 issued Circular Letter dated 16.10.1981, whereby the industrial workers working in Electric Mechanical Engineering, were ordered to be fixed in the higher pay scale in the category of (i) Unskilled, (ii) Semi-skilled and (iii) Skilled categories.

Thereafter vide another circular dated 11.05.1983 fitment of industrial workers in the Ministry of Defence was carried out.

2.1 It is submitted that the 3rd C.P.C. gave no consideration to the Industrial Trade working in the Ordnance Depots and consequently on representations moved by the various Unions, the matter was referred to the Anomaly Committee to remove any anomaly emanating from the recommendation of the 3rd C.P.C. The Anomaly Committee did not address the anomaly on grounds of apparently many trades being left out of the demanded re-categorization, such as those concerning Tailor, Packers, Tent Menders, Rope Workers, Chuckler, etc.

Aggrieved, certain Tailor personnel filed O.A. No. 158/1984 before the C.A.T. Guwahati Bench which vide order dated 19.10.1995 directed the respondents to take effective steps for obtaining sanction of the President and concurrence of the concerned Ministry to declare the applicants in the Tailor trade as Skilled worker and to grant sanction in the Skilled Grade w.e.f. 16.10.1981. The Department challenged the order of the Guwahati Bench before the Hon'ble Supreme Court where the SLP was dismissed vide order dated 11.01.1996 (Annexure A-6) and the Review petition thereupon was also dismissed vide order of January 1997 of the Hon Apex Court (Annexure A-6 colly). Consequently, the judgment of the C.A.T. Guwahati bench was given effect to by obtaining sanction of the President granting Skilled Grade of Rs. 260-400 w.e.f. 16.10.1981 as revised from time to time vide order dated 15.10.1996 issued by Under Secretary to the Government of India. Following suit, the employees of similar trades filed O.A. No. 1321/CH/97 before the CAT, Chandigarh Bench which too was allowed vide order dated 05.03.1999, which restricted payment of arrears to 18 months but allowed the pay scale of Rs. 260-400 w.e.f.

16.10.1981. Similarly, some of the Tailors personnel preferred O.A. No. 1453/1998 before the CAT, Kolkata Bench which,by its order dated 06.03.2000 (Annexure A-9)also disposed of the OA in favour of the applicants therein, in the terms of earlier ordersin the Guwahati Bench and other similar OAs of Calcutta Bench.

2.2 Similarly the employees of Ordinance Depot, Shakurbasti filed O.A. No. 1326/1999 before the CAT, Principal Bench which too was allowed vide order dated 06.09.2000 with directions to accord similar benefit as given to the applicants of the case of Nripendera Mohan Paul (supra) decided by the Guwahati Bench. Similarly, Tailors workin