IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB & HARYANA AT

CHANDIGARH

LPA No. 1996 of 2011(O&M)

Date of Decision: 31.10.2011.

Sucha Singh & others

--Appellants

Versus

State of Punjab & others

--Respondents

CORAM:- HON'BLE MR.JUSTICE PERMOD KOHLI.

HON'BLE MR.JUSTICE TEJINDER SINGH DHINDSA.

Present:-

Mr. Gurminder Singh, Advocate for the appellants.

***

PERMOD KOHLI.J (ORAL)

Notice of motion.

Ms. Anu Pal, A.A.G., Punjab has been asked to accept notice

on behalf of respondents-State.

With the concurrence of learned counsel for the parties, this

appeal is being disposed of at the motion stage itself.

The moot question which falls for consideration before us is

whether the similarly situated employees can claim parity on the basis of the

judgements rendered on the similar issues in the matter of grant of arrears of

benefits, even though, in some of the cases the arrears have been restricted.

Admittedly, there are two sets of judgements on the same issue.

In one set of judgements rendered by this Court benefit of arrears has been

restricted to three years, whereas in other set of judgements no such

restriction has been imposed. Resultantly, the employees/writ petitioners in

those judgements have been conferred the benefit of arrears as well.

The issue is definitely ticklish in nature and needs to be

resolved. The factual matrix relating to filing of this appeal is briefly

LPA No. 1996 of 2011(O&M)

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noticed hereunder:-

Appellants herein were serving in the Agriculture Department,

Govt. of Punjab as Agriculture Development Officers. They were in service

prior to 1.1.1986. On the basis of the recommendations of the Third Pay

Commission accepted by the State Govt., benefit of revised pay scales were

granted to the employees of various departments including Veterinary

Department. The State Govt., however, issued order dated 18.9.1992 and

adopted 1.1.1991 as the effective date for grant of revised pay scales

pursuant to the recommendations of the Third Pay Commission instead of

1.1.1986. Aggrieved of the action of the State Govt. for shifting the period

of grant of benefit from 1.1.1986 to 1.1.1991 a writ petition being CWP

No.457 of 1995 titled as Prem Singh Gill and others Vs. State of Punjab

& others came to be filed before this Court claiming benefit of the revised

pay scales w.e.f. 1.1.1986 instead of 1.1.1991 as granted by the State Govt.

This writ petition was allowed by this Court vide judgement dated

29.9.2006 and a direction was issued to allow the benefit of the revised pay

scale to the writ petitioners therein w.e.f. 1.1.1986 with all consequential

benefits. Resultantly, the arrears became payable w.e.f. 1.1.1986. State

Govt.'s appeal being L.P.A. No.94 of 2007 remained unsuccessful having

been dismissed by the Hon'ble Division Bench of this Court vide judgement

dated 24.4.2007. The judgement having attained finality as no further

challenge was made against the same, the State Govt. vide its order dated

10.7.2008 granted pay scale of Rs.4125-5600 to the writ petitioners w.e.f.

1.1.1986 meaning thereby the arrears were also paid. Even though, the

aforesaid judgement was implemented qua the petitioners therein, a large

section of the Govt. employees was not granted similar benefits despite their

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entitlement. Inaction on the part of the State Govt. forced the deprived

employees to approach this Court in various writ petitions. Reference may

be made to CWP No.13615 of 2009 titled as Dr. Yadvendra Singh and

others Vs. State of Punjab & others decided on 2.3.2010, CWP No.8646

of 2010 titled as Narender Singh Josan and others Vs. State of Punjab

and others decided on 12.5.2010 and CWP No. 13062 of 2010 titled as

Sawinder Singh and others Vs. State of Punjab & others decided on

10.1.2011. All these writ petitions were disposed of in terms of judgement

in Prem Singh Gill's case. Another writ petition being CWP No.9855 of

2009 titled as Balbir