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2018 Supreme(Online)(CAT) 1801
CENTRAL ADMINISTRATIVE TRIBUNAL GUWAHATI BENCH Original Application No.273/2010 THE HON’BLE SMT. MANJULA DAS, JUDICIAL MEMBER THE HON’BLE MR. NEKKHOMANG NEIHSIAL, ADMINISTRATIVE MEMBER
1. Shri Jalesh Kumar Superintendent Records Branch, (AR)
Shillong – 11.
2. Shri Pinak Pani Hore Superintendent Office of the Directorate General Assam Rifles, Shillong – 793011.
3. Smt. Kredio Nongrum Accounts Officer Office of the Directorate General Assam Rifles, Shillong – 793011.
4. Smt. Debjani Deb Record Officer Office of the Directorate General Assam Rifles, Shillong – 793011.
5. Smt. Susan Maureen Tariang Record Officer Office of the Directorate General Assam Rifles, Shillong – 793011.
6. Shri Subash Ch. Bhattacharjee Accounts Officer Office of the Directorate General Assam Rifles, Shillong – 793011.
7. Smt. Binapani Gupta Record Officer Office of the Directorate General Assam Rifles, Shillong – 793011.
8. Shri Rishot Stone Tron Accounts Officer Office of the Directorate General Assam Rifles, Shillong – 793011.
9. Smt. Lila Devi Gurung Accounts Officer Office of the Directorate General Assam Rifles, Shillong – 793011. 10. Shri N. K. Arjun Kanungoe Accounts Officer Office of the Directorate General Assam Rifles, Shillong – 793011.
11. Smt. Dharitri Bhattacharjee Accounts Officer Office of the Directorate General Assam Rifles, Shillong – 793011.
12. Shri Joy Madhab Pramanik Accounts Officer Office of the Directorate General Assam Rifles, Shillong – 793011.
13. Shri korywell Kharbithai Accounts Officer Office of the Directorate General Assam Rifles, Shillong – 793011.
14. Smt. Ablema Diengdoh Accounts Officer Office of the Directorate General Assam Rifles, Shillong – 793011. 15. Shri Ananta Ram Chhetri Accounts Officer Office of the Directorate General Assam Rifles, Shillong – 793011.
16. Smt. Mita Payal Record Officer Office of the Directorate General Assam Rifles, Shillong – 793011.
17. Smt. Kabita Mitra Addl. Accounts Officer Office of the Directorate General Assam Rifles, Shillong – 793011.
18. Shri Surajit Kr. Home Choudhury Addl. Accounts Officer Office of the Directorate General Assam Rifles, Shillong – 793011.
19. Smt. Nilima Deb Superintendent Office of the Directorate General Assam Rifles, Shillong – 793011. 20. Smt. Panna Purkayastha Superintendent Office of the Directorate General Assam Rifles, Shillong – 793011.
21. Shri Borphylla Syngai Superintendent Office of the Directorate General Assam Rifles, Shillong – 793011.
22. Shri Jitendra Narayan Bhattacharjee Superintendent Office of the Directorate General Assam Rifles, Shillong – 793011.
23. Smt. Purabi Shreshta Superintendent Office of the Directorate General Assam Rifles, Shillong – 793011.
24. Smt. Jayamma Mathew Superintendent Office of the Directorate General Assam Rifles, Shillong – 793011.
25. Shri Labanya Kr. Sarma Superintendent Office of the Directorate General Assam Rifles, Shillong – 793011.
26. Shri Subash Bhattacharjee Superintendent Office of the Directorate General Assam Rifles, Shillong – 793011.
27. Shri Shymalendu Roy Superintendent Office of the Directorate General Assam Rifles, Shillong – 793011.
28. Shri Santanu Bhattacharjee Superintendent Office of the Directorate General Assam Rifles, Shillong – 793011.
29. Shri Rakhal Dhar Superintendent Office of the Directorate General Assam Rifles, Shillong – 793011.
30. Smt. Swapna Dey Superintendent Office of the Directorate General Assam Rifles, Shillong – 793011.
31. Md. Ali Ansari Superintendent Office of the Directorate General Assam Rifles, Shillong – 793011.
32. Smt. Sujata Sarkar Superintendent Office of the Directorate General Assam Rifles, Shillong – 793011.
33. Smt. Marblelicia Langstieh Superintendent Office of the Directorate General Assam Rifles, Shillong – 793011.
34. Shri Ivan Favian Lyngrah Superintendent Office of the Directorate General Assam Rifles, Shillong – 793011. 35. Smt. Leena Chakraborty Superintendent Office of the Directorate General Assam Rifles, Shillong – 793011.
36. Shri Bhaskar Kumar Bhowmick Superintendent Office of the Directorate General Assam Rifles, Shillong – 793011.
37. Smt. Sucharita Adhikari Superintendent Office of the Directorate General Assam Rifles, Shillong – 793011.
38. Shri Santanu Nandi Superintendent Office of the Directorate General Assam Rifles, Shillong – 793011.
39. Shri Jayanta kr. Das Superintendent Office of the Directorate General Assam Rifles, Shillong – 793011.
40. Shri Santanu Deb Superintendent Office of the Directorate General Assam Rifles, Shillong – 793011.
41. Shri Subhashish Bhattacharjee Superintendent Office of the Directorate General Assam Rifles, Shillong – 793011.
42. Smt. Leela Das Gupta Superintendent Office of the Directorate General Assam Rifles, Shillong – 793011. 43. Smt. Bernadette Fancon Superintendent Office of the Directorate General Assam Rifles, Shillong – 793011.
44. Shri Pankaj Kr. Pal Superintendent Office of the Directorate General Assam Rifles, Shillong – 793011.
45. Shri Biman Kumar Bhattacharjee Superintendent Office of the Directorate General Assam Rifles, Shillong – 793011.
46. Shri Biresh Ranjan Nath Superintendent Office of the Directorate General Assam Rifles, Shillong – 793011.
47. Shri Partha Pratim Dutta Superintendent Office of the Directorate General Assam Rifles, Shillong – 793011.
48. Shri Prafulla Kumar Mandal Superintendent Office of the Directorate General Assam Rifles, Shillong – 793011.
49. Shri Bikash Roy Choudhury Superintendent Office of the Directorate General Assam Rifles, Shillong – 793011.
50. Shri Haripada Deb Superintendent Office of the Directorate General Assam Rifles, Shillong – 793011. 51. Shri Dungar Singh Kunjwal Superintendent Office of the Directorate General Assam Rifles, Shillong – 793011.
52. Smt. Smriti Rekha Bhattacharjee Superintendent Office of the Directorate General Assam Rifles, Shillong – 793011.
53. Smt. Babli Dhar Superintendent Office of the Directorate General Assam Rifles, Shillong – 793011.
54. Smt. Rita Gurung Assistant Office of the Directorate General Assam Rifles, Shillong – 793011.
55. Shri B. R. Mylliemngap Assistant Office of the Directorate General Assam Rifles, Shillong – 793011.
56. Smt. Debika Bhatacharjee Assistant Office of the Directorate General Assam Rifles, Shillong – 793011.
57. Shri. Ram Jatan Ray Superintendent Office of the Directorate General Assam Rifles, Shillong – 793011.
(All the applicants are presently working as Assistants/ Superintendents/Additional Accounts Officer/Record Officer/Civil Gazetted Officer in the Head Office of Assam Rifles, Shillong)
… Applicants By Advocates : Mr.M.Chanda & Mrs.U.Dutta - Versus -
1. The Union of India Represented by Secretary to the Government of India Ministry of Home Affairs New Delhi – 1.
2. The Secretary Ministry of Finance Department of Expenditure Govt. of India.
New Delhi.
3. The Director General Assam Rifles.
Shillong – 793011.
… Respondents.
By Advocate: Mr.R.Hazarika, Addl. C.G.S.C.
Date of hearing: 03.10.2018 Date of order: 21.12.2018
O R D E R
MANJULA DAS, MEMBER (J):
By this OA filed under Section 19 of the Administrative Tribunals applicant, (57) in number, have jointly approached this Tribunal seeking following relief(s):-
“8.1 That the Hon’ble Tribunal be pleased to declare that the Assistant Cadre of HQ, DGAR are entitled to the scale of Rs. 5500-9000/- w.e.f.
01.01.1996 with all consequential benefit.
8.2. That the Hon’ble Tribunal be pleased to direct the respondents to upgrade the scale of ASssitant Grade of HQ DGAR from Rs. 5000-800/- to Rs. 5500- 9000/- w.e.f. 01.01.1996 to bring parity with the Assistants working in other CPMFs, central Govt. organizations etc. and make corresponding upgradation of pay in the higher cadres in the hierarchy with all consequential benefits so as enable the applicants to get the benefit of the further corresponding scale of pay revision under 6th CPC with all consequential benefits.
8.3 Costs of the application.
8.4 Any other relief(s), which the applicants are entitled to as the Hon’ble Tribunal, may deem fit and proper.”
2. This Tribunal had heard the matter earlier and decided on
04.03.2011 as under:-
“8. Testing the present case on the touchstone of the aforesaid tenets, it is obvious, that there exist no violation of the set norms of law in the pay fixation, called for the interference of the Court. However, it is open for the applicants to make appropriate representation before the anomaly committee for upgradation of the scale of pay.”
3. Being aggrieved with the order the applicants have filed WP(C) No.129/2011 before the Hon’ble Meghalaya High Court. The Hon’ble High Court vide its judgment and order dated 22.11.2015 set aside the order of this Tribunal passed the following orders:-
“…
In the present matter, where neither the submissions of the parties have gone into the basic scrutiny of the CAT nor a considered finding has been recorded on the merits; and where it appears that the CAT has proceeded in a rather cursory manner, we are unable to endorse the order impugned. In our view, the matter involved in O.A., qua the present petitioners, requires consideration on merits with reference to the contention of the parties.
In view of the above, this writ petition is allowed to the extent and in the manner that the impugned order dated 04.03.2011 is set aside; and O.A. No.273 of 2010 is restored for re-consideration by the CAT qua the present petitioners.”
4. In view of the above directions of the Hon’ble High Court the matter is again heard on merits.
5. The issue involves in the present case is that the applicants working in the HQ, DGAR are not getting upgraded pay scale of Rs.5500-9000/- at par with the Assistants of other Central Para Military Forces (CPMF ins short). Thus, their claim is for equal pay parity with the Assistants of the other CPMFs like BSF, CISF, ITBP & SSB who were given Rs.5500-175-9000/- w.e.f.
01.01.1996.
6. Mr.M.Chanda, learned counsel for the applicants submitted that all the applicants are permanent employees and presently working as Assistant/Superintendent/Additional Accounts Officer/Accounts Officer/Record Officer/Civil Gazetted Officer, in the Assam Rifles which is a para military force under the Ministry of Home Affairs. As per the recommendation of 4th Central Pay Commission, Assam Rifles was brought under common umbrella of CPMFs along with BFS, CRPF, ITBP etc. In the recommendation of the 5th Central Pay Commission (para 70.49) it was stated that the Ministerial cadre in the CPMFs may be given the scale of pay as recommended by the Pay Commission. Accordingly the scale of Assistant cadre in the CPMFs like BPS, CISF, ITBP and SSB was given Rs. 5500-175-9000/- with effect from 01.01.1996. But in the case of Assam Rifles the scale for the post of Assistant was given Rs. 4500-125-7000/- initially and then amended to Rs. 5000-150- 8000/-. The learned counsel stressed that the Assam Rifles is also a CPMF like BSF, SSB, ITBP and CISF etc. under one Ministry i.e., the Ministry of Home Affairs. A
