HIGH COURT OF JAMMU & KASHMIR AND LADAKH

AT SRINAGAR

CJ Court

Case: WP(C) No. 588 of 2020

Sajjad Qadir and others

.....Petitioner(s)

Through :- Sh. S. A. Makroo, Senior Advocate with

Sh. R. A. Bhat, Advocate.

v/s

Ajay Kumar and others

.....Respondent(s)

Through :- Sh. T M Shamsi, ASGI.

CORAM: HON’BLE THE CHIEF JUSTICE

ORDER

24.03.2022

1.

All 30 petitioners are working as causal labourers for long years with

the Army and are engaged in the loading and unloading of essential supplies of

food items and other consumable items required for the consumption of Army

jawans and officers and are being paid wages only @ ₹487/- per day.

2.

The petitioners have given in tabulation form the date of their birth,

qualifications, date of engagement to establish that they are all duly qualified to

work as porter in the Army and that they have been working for long years

some of them from 1989, 1990, 1993, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2006,

2010, 2013, 2014, 2015 & 2016 continuously and are being paid @₹487/- per

day only.

3.

The petitioners contend that the nature of work which is discharged

by them i.e. loading and unloading of essential commodities is the same as is

discharged by the regular porters or the seasonal porters or even the regular

Group-C employees of the Department. The petitioners, as such, by means of

this writ petition are claiming that they be paid wages/salary on the principle of

Sr. No. 11

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8equal pay for equal work9 at par with the other porters of the Army and that

the Office Memorandum dated 04.09.2019 read with O.M. No. 22.01.2015,

14.06.2016 and 31.03.2017 be implemented and that they be paid wages

@₹18,000/- plus D.A. retrospectively w.e.f. 01.01.2016 for a period they have

worked.

4.

The petitioners contend that they fulfill terms and conditions for

hiring of seasonal porters. The Office Memorandum dated 07.06.1988 of the

Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievance & Pensions (Department of Personnel

& Training) on the subject of recruitment of casual workers and persons on

daily wages as a policy decided that ordinarily daily wagers should not be

recruited for work of regular nature; recruitment of daily wagers may be made

only for work which is casual or seasonal or intermittent in nature which is not

of full time nature for which regular posts can be created; where the nature of

the work entrusted to the casual workers and regular employees is the same;

the casual workers may be paid @ 1/30^th of the pay at the minimum of the

relevant pay scale plus D.A. for work of eight hours a day; casual workers may

be given one day weekly off after six days of continuous work; the payment to

the casual workers may be restricted only to the days on which they actually

perform duties with a paid weekly off as above and in addition be paid for the

national holiday if it falls on a working day for the casual workers; and in cases

where the work done by the causal workers is different from the work done by

the regular employee, the casual worker may be paid only the minimum wages

notified by the Ministry of Labour or the State Government/Union Territory

whichever is higher as per the Minimum Wages Act, 1948.

5.

In view of the aforesaid Office Memorandum, petitioners who have

been engaged as daily wagers and are admittedly discharging the work which is

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entrusted to the regular employee, they are entitled to 1/30^th of the pay at the

minimum of the relevant pay scale plus D.A. for work of eight hours with a

weekly off after six days of continuous work.

6.

The Office Memorandum dated 04.09.2019 simply reiterates some of

the conditions of the Office Memorandum dated 07.06.1988 (supra). The office

memorandum dated 14.06.2016 of the Government of India, Ministry of

Personnel, Public Grievance and Pensions (Department of Personnel and

Training) in reference to the office