ORDER

R.V.Raveendran, J.—

Delay condoned and leave granted in the SLPs. The question involved in these appeals filed by the State of Madhya Pradesh, relates to the quantum of Non- Practicing Allowance (‘NPA’ for short) payable to certain categories of Medical Officers belonging to the State Insurance service.

2. The Madhya Pradesh Employees State Insurance Service (Gazetted) Recruitment Rules, 1981 (in short ‘the Rules’) framed by the State Government came into force in the year 1982. Rule (5) of the Rules provides that classification of the service, the scales of pay attached thereto and the number of posts included in the service shall be in accordance with the provisions contained in Schedule I thereto. The scales of pay and NPA payable to different categories of Medical Officers, other than the Director of the Service, are extracted below from Schedule I to the Rules:

Non-Practising Allowance is paid to Medical Officers when private practice by medical officers was prohibited and abolished.

3. Even though the rules specified that the aforesaid categories of Medical Officers were entitled to NPA linked to their pay (that is 25% of the basic pay), the letters of appointment issue