Court emphasizes equal treatment and fair pay for similarly situated employees under the law, allowing notional pay fixation from 1996.

ORDER

Urmita Datta (Sen), Judicial Member:

The applicants have preferred this O.A. under Section 19 of Administrative Tribunals Act , 1985 seeking the following reliefs:-

2. Brief facts of this case are as under:-

(a) The applicants were appointed mostly as Inspectors of Customs on different dates prior to 01.01.1996 in the then existing scale of pay of Rs.1640-Rs.2900 which was subsequently revised to Rs.2000- 3200 and thereafter to Rs.5500-9000 (as per recommendation of Vth CPC). Subsequently they were promoted to the posts of Superintendent and some of them were elevated to the post of Assistant Commissioner/Dy. Commissioner.

(b) After implementation of the Vth CPC w.e.f. 01.01.1996, parity between the Inspectors of CBI/IB and the Inspectors of Central Excise & Customs which had existed till the time of IVth CPC was disrupted and it significantly affected all the promotional posts in the hierarchy viz. Superintendents and Assistant Commissioners in the matter of scale of pay.

(c) The pay scale of the Inspectors in the Department prior to 1996 was on par with similar posts in the organized Accounts Department i.e, Senior Accounts Officer, Comptroller & Auditor General Department, Divisional Accountant, Labour Department, Section Officer, Central Secretariat Staff (CSS) Department, Assistant Grade, Railway Department, Accounts Staff, Income Tax Department, which were classified as Grade-C Non-Gazetted prior to 1996.

(d) Pursuant to the Vth Central Pay Commission in the year 1996, all the posts similar to the posts of Inspector of Central Excise & Customs Department were placed in the pay scale of Rs.5500-175- 9000/- as a result of which the parity between the Inspectors of CBI/IB and the Inspectors of Central Excise and Customs which had existed prior to 01.01.1996 was disrupted and it significantly affected all the promotional posts in the hierarchy viz. Superintendents and Assistant Commissioners in the matter of scale of pay.

(e) All India Federation of Central Excise Officers Association had filed O.A.No.45 of 1992 and O.A.No. 63 of 1997 before the Guwahati Bench of this Tribunal seeking payment of revised pay scales. The Central Administrative Tribunal, Guwahati Bench vide orders dated 19.01.2001 in O.A.No.45 of 1992 and O.A.No. 63 of 1997 held that there was hostile discrimination in pay scales between the posts of Senior Auditors in IA & AD Department and the Assistants of Central Secretariat Staff (CSS) and directed to grant pay scale of Rs.1640-2900 (pre-revised), corresponding to revised pay scale of Rs.5500-9000/- The said order was challenged by the Department before the High Court of Guwahati and the Hon'ble High Court of Guwahati had confirmed the said order vide order dated 16.09.2022.

(f) Thereafter, the Secretaries of Expenditure, Joint Secretary (P) and OSD of Implementation Cell decided to grant higher grades on notional basis w.e.f. 01.01.1996 with actual payments being made prospectively in terms of formulation approved by the Group of Ministers for the Accounts Staff of Railways. Accordingly an Official Memo dated 28.02.2003 upgrading the pay scale of Senior Auditors notionally w.e.f. 01.01.1996 and actual payment w.e.f. 19.02.2003 was issued. Thus, the pay scale of Assistants of CSS, who were in the pay scale of Rs.1640-2900/- (pre-revised) was enhanced to Rs.6500-10500/-w.e.f. 01.01.1996 notionally and effectively from 19.02.2003. The above benefit was notionally extended to w.e.f. 01.01.1996 uniformly to all posts, which were on par with Section Officer, but the actual date of payment varied from Department to Department.

(g) The Government of India, Ministry