BHAGWAN SAHAI CARPENTER Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioners who are employed in various categories of trades such as carpenter, masson, painter, upholster, plumber, pipefitter, sawyer and sign writer under skilled grade in Military Engineering Services under the Ministry of Defence commonly known as M.E.S. have assailed in this writ petition the upgradation of some of the trades out of the 15 trades in the skilled grade on the basis of the recommendations made by the Expert Committee constituted by Respondent No. 1 on the grounds inter alia that the fixation of higher scales of pay of some of these trades out of the 15 trades in the skilled grade ignoring the other trades is arbitrary, discriminatory and in contravention of the fundamental rights of the petitioners enshrined in Articles 14 and 16 as well as in Article 39(d) of the Constitution of India in as much as it purports to violate the right of equal pay for equal work.

(2.) THE petitioners along with other employees in different trades within the skilled grade used to get same scales of pay in the skilled grade continuosly for years together since the recommendations of the first Pay Commission in 1949. All the employees of the trades in skilled grade in Military Engineering Services, in short as MES, also received common scales of pay on the recommendations of the Second and Third Pay Commission till 1981. In 1981 out of the 15 trades in the skilled grade some of the trades had been upgraded ignoring the petitioners' trades and as a result the petitioners though included in the skilled grade had been getting lesser pay than those belonging to some trades due to the upgradation of their scales of pay. This upgradation in the scales of pay had been made on the basis of report of an Expert Committee appointed in 1981 which gave scores points to the various trades and on its basis recommended higher scale of pay for six trades in the skilled grade i. e. Rs. 260-400 whereas the other trades of the said grade were termed as semi-skilled and the scale of pay was recommended as Rs. 210-290. this anomaly in the scale of pay of employees of different trades within the same grade led to great dissatisfaction amongst the employees of different trades within, the skilled grade. THE petitioners, therefore, challenged in this writ petition, the fixation of the higher scale of pay for six trades i.e. Moulder, Mason., Upholster, Swayer, Pipe Fitter and Plumber. THEre is no dispute that all the employees in the 15 trades mentioned in para 4 of the writ petition previous to the fixation of scale of pay on the basis of the Report of the Expert Committee used to draw the same scale of pay as per the recommendations of the Third Pay Commission in 1973 i.e. Rs. 210-290.

(3.) IT appears from a copy of letter dated October, 1984 issued by the Engineer-in-Chief that:-