Candidates selected prior to a specific date but appointed later due to administrative delays are entitled to the same salary benefits as others under similar government orders.

ORDER :

Mummineni Sudheer Kumar, J.

The issue that arises for consideration in this batch of writ petitions is one and the same and as such, they are taken up for consideration together and being disposed of by this common order.

2. All the petitioners herein participated in the recruitment process undertaken by the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission vide Notification No.135 of 2007 dated 15.11.2007 and got selected in terms of the selection list published on 07.11.2008 / 08.11.2008. Thereafter, the process of certificate verification was also concluded in the month of December, 2008 and the provisionally selected candidates were allotted to various Departments, including, Medical Department, Education Department, Rural Development Department, Revenue Department etc. All the petitioners herein are the candidates, who got appointed as Typist / Steno Typist Grade-III and all of them, though were selected prior to 01.06.2009, were appointed in their respective Departments only after 01.06.2009. In the meanwhile, the Government issued a Government Order in G.O.Ms.No.234, Finance (Pay Cell) Department, dated 01.06.2009, implementing the recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission with effect from 01.01.2006. Subsequently, another Government Order was issued in G.O.Ms.No.258, Finance (Pay Cell) Department, dated 23.06.2009, amending some of the provisions of the Government Order in G.O.Ms.No.234, Finance (Pay Cell) Department, dated 01.06.2009. It was thereafter due to certain anomalies, a One Man Commission came to be appointed by the Government for removing the anomalies and accordingly, based on the report submitted by the One Man Commission, the Government issued a Government Order in G.O.Ms.No.340, Finance (Pay Cell) Department, dated 26.08.2010, directing that the Junior Assistants from among the Contract Assistants / Agricultural Officers and any other similar categories of posts recruited by the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission in the same batch prior to 01.06.2009 and joined / appointed on a subsequent date on or after 01.06.2009 due to administrative reasons duly allowing the fitment benefit to the individual employees concerned as a special case with monetary benefit from 01.08.2010. The relevant paragraph of the said Government Order reads as under:

“4) The Government has carefully examined the above recommendations of the One Man Commission and decided to rectify the anomaly as pointed out by the One Man Commission. Accordingly, Government direct that in exercise of the powers conferred under Rule-13 of the Tamil Nadu Revised Scales of Pay Rules, 2009 relax the Rule-9 of the Tamil Nadu Revised Scales of Pay Rules, 2009 in favour of the incumbents recruited as Junior Assistants from among the Contract Assistants / Agricultural Officers and any other similar categories of posts recruited by the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission in the same batch prior to 1-6-2009 and joined / appointed on a subsequent date on or after 1-6-2009 due to administrative reasons duly allowing the fitment benefit to the individual employees concerned as a special case. However, Government direct that the above fixation benefit shall be given notional effect from the date of appointment of the individual employees concerned with monetary benefit from 1-8-2010. ”

3. The petitioners herein, who were also got selected prior to 01.06.2009 and got appointed only after 01.06.2009, started making a claim for the benefit of the said Government Order in G.O.Ms.No.340, Finance (Pay Cell) Department, dated 26.08.2010, contending that they