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2025 Supreme(Online)(CAT) 3198
CENTRAL ADMINISTRATIVE TRIBUNAL
Mr. Justice Om Prakash, J, Mr. Mohan Pyare, A
Shailendra Kumar Jaiswal – Appellant
Versus
Union of India – Respondent
ORIGINAL APPLICATION NO. 330/286/2024
For the Appellants/Petitioners: Shri Anil Kumar Singh, Shri Rohit Singh
For the Respondents: Shri Arvind Singh
Stepping up of pay is justified for seniors if they are not misrepresented and the conditions for parity with juniors are met, irrespective of cadre differences.
Headnote:(A) Railway Board Orders - RBE No. 133/2019 - Stepping up of pay - Applicants, promoted as Chief Loco Inspectors prior to 01.01.2016, sought parity in pay with juniors promoted after this date - Court found that withdrawal of stepping up benefits and recovery of excess payments based on RBE No. 133/2019 was unjustified - Applicants were denied due process as no show cause notice was issued before recovery - Court reinstated applicants' stepped-up pay and directed refund of recovered amounts with interest. (Paras 16-21)
(B) Legal Principles - Stepping up of pay is permissible only if both senior and junior belong to the same cadre - RBE No. 133/2019 was applied incorrectly as applicants and juniors were from different feeder cadres - Previous judgments by the Tribunal affirmed the right to stepping up based on similar circumstances. (Paras 10-16)
(C) Findings of Court - The court upheld the principle that recovery of payments made in excess cannot occur without clear justification or misrepresentation by the employee. (Paras 17-20)
(D)
Result: Order dated 04.03.2024 quashed; applicants' pay restored and recovery of payments prohibited.
| Table of Content |
|---|
| 1. factual background of the applicants' positions and pay. (Para 2 , 3) |
| 2. court's analysis of previous judgments and their applicability. (Para 5 , 9 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17) |
| 3. arguments regarding the withdrawal of pay stepping up. (Para 6 , 7 , 8) |
| 4. ratio decidendi regarding the treatment of pay and cadre classification. (Para 10 , 11 , 12 , 13) |
| 5. conclusion on the restoration of pay and prohibition of recovery. (Para 18 , 19 , 20 , 21) |
ORDER
BY HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE OM PRAKASAH -VII, MEMBER (J)
By means of present Original Application, the applicants have sought the following reliefs:-
“(i) To quash the impugned order dated 04.03.2024 passed by the respondent NO. 3 and RBE No. 133/2019 dated 16.08.2019 of Railway Board and further be pleased to command the concerning respondents not to interfere in the peaceful working of the applicants and not to reduce the basic pay and not to recover excess amount from the applicants.
(ii) Any other reliefs as this Hon’ble Tribunal may deem fit and proper in the facts and circumstances of the case to meet the ends of justice.
(iii) Award the cost of the OA to the applicants”.
2. The facts in brief in this case are that all the applicants have been initially appointed as per the recruitment Rules of the Railway Recruitment Board on the post of Assistant Loco Pilots in between the year 1987 to 1990. The eligibility criteria for the aforesaid post was High School. Presently they are posted as Chief Loco Inspectors in the respondents’ department. The selection process for the post of Chief Loco Inspectors is done from Loco Pilot (Goods), Loco Pilot (Passengers) and Loco Pilot (Mail) category subject to fulfillment of requisite conditions as laid down by the Railway Board which are as the Loco Pilot must have completed 75000 km foot plate experience and must have the good work and conduct. The cadre of Loco Pilot Goods (LPG), Loco Pilot Passenger (LPP) & Loco Pilot Mail (LPM) are one and the same because as per 6th Pay Commission, the Grade Pay became same i.e. 9300-34800 (GP-4200) and in 7th pay commission, it is also the same. Applicants were promoted on the post of Chief Loco Inspector prior to 1.1.2016. Shri J.N. Tiwari, Shri G.C. Pal, Shri A.P Shrivastava, Shri M.K. Sahu, Shri Kishori Lal, Shri K.C. Pandey and Shri Dinesh Kumar have been promoted on the post of Chief Loco Inspectors after 01.01.2016. Similarly situated employees including the applicants made representations before the competent authority requesting therein to enhance the pay of the applicants at par with their juniors who are drawing more basic pay than applicants. Thereafter vide letter dated 21.09.2017, the salary of the applicants were stepped up at par with their juniors and was fixed at Rs.102800/- directing therein to pay the arrears to the applicants. The Railway Board vide its RBE No. 133/2019 dated 16.08.2019 issued a clarification regarding the anomaly in fixation of pay of Chief Loco Inspectors appointed prior to 01.01.2016 with reference to their juniors appointed on or after 01.01.2016 and drawing more pay than the seniors. After promulgation of aforesaid RBE, Railway Board issued another instructions on the aforesaid issue vide RBE No. 1962/2019 dated 14.11.2019. Railway Board issued another guidelines on the aforesaid subject vide RBE No. 7/2020 dated 27.01.2020 wherein it has been clarified that the future cases of stepping up of pay of CLIs may be regulated keeping in view of fresh guidelines. Thus, in view of above, RBE No. 133/2019 have been made ineffective and inoperative in the past cases. Prayagraj Division had given the benefit of stepping up against Shri R.R. Putrana to all senior CLIs in the year 2009 when Shri R.R. Putrana was promoted to CLI from LPM category. This stepping up was granted on the basis of RBE 236/2009. The pay of all the applicants have been stepped up against Shri J.N. Tiwari, who is junior to them. Some of the CLIs who have not been given the benefit of notification dated
