Punjab and Haryana High Court: A Division Bench of Rajiv Sharma and Harinder Singh Sindhu, JJ. dismissed the writ petition on the ground being devoid of merit and in light of the set principle of law.
The brief facts of the case were that the respondents were appointed as Assistant Research officers in the office of Director Welfare of Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes Department Haryana. The pay scale was fixed which was admissible at that time in ESA department to Assistant Research Officer. The representation was made by assistant research officer of ESA department which was accepted and thus the payment was revised. The respondents also made representation seeking parity of pay scales of the Assistant Research Officer serving in ESA Department. The representation was rejected by the competent authority.
After submission of the facts, it was found that the state has maintained the parity of pay scale of Assistant Research Officer working in the office of Director, Welfare of Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes Department Haryana. The parity was disturbed only when the representation made by the Assistant Research Officer of ESA Department was allowed.
The counter filed by the appellant to the writ petition submitted that the quality and quantity of work of the Assistant Research Officer is substantially different in both the departments.
The court thus opined that it is settled law that it is not open to discriminate between the incumbents of the two posts for the grant of pay scale at the time of subsequent revision of pay scales once the State Government had already decided to equate the pay scale of a certain post. Thus the appeal was dismissed. [State of Haryana v. Mange Ram, 2019 SCC OnLine P&H 1411, decided on 31-07-2019]
