- (1.)THE petitioners are aggrieved against the order of the first respondent - Tribunal dated 23. 08. 2001 passed in o. A. No. 1186 of 2000. The respondents 2 to 4 who were employed as Cooks in the second petitioner Organisation preferred the Original Application praying for the relief to set aside the order passed by the first respondent in o. A. No. 12034/13/99-Lep dated 17. 12. 1999 and direct the respondents to fix the scale of pay of the respondents 2 to 4 in the scale of pay of Rs. 950-1500 with retrospective effect from 01. 01. 1986 and pay all the arrears to them.
(2.)ACCORDING to the contesting respondents 2 to 4, they were all working as Cooks in the second petitioner organisation, that there are various research institutes under the control of the first petitioner in various parts of India, that they were placed in the scale of pay of rs. 750-940, that the Fourth Pay Commission recommended the pay scale of Rs. 950-1500 for the post of Cooks and therefore, they should also be placed in the scale of pay of rs. 950-1500 with effect from 01. 01. 1986. It was also claimed by the contesting respondents 2 to 4 that the Cooks working in the other research institutes under the control of the first petitioner were being placed in the scale of pay of Rs. 950-1500 and therefore, their scale of pay should also be fixed in that scale. The claim was resisted by the petitioners herein by contending that the Fourth Pay commission recommended replacing pay scale to Cooks in different Organisations, that there were as many as six scales of pay applicable to Cooks in different Organisations depending upon the nature of work load and other attending circumstances and therefore, the parity in wages claimed by the contesting respondents 2 to 4 cannot be granted.
(3.)THE Tribunal took the view that the second petitioner in its letter dated 05. 01. 1994 strongly recommended for revision of scale of pay of the Cooks in its organisation on par with the scale of pay applicable to the cooks in the Central Health Institutions, which scale was rs. 775-1025 and since the second petitioner who is the administrative Head has recommended for such parity in payment, it should be taken that the applicants were also similarly situated persons. On that basis, the Tribunal ultimately declared that the applicants were entitled to the scale of pay of Rs. 950-1500 and to the corresponding pay scale as per the recommendations of the Fifth Pay commission. The Tribunal also directed that the grant of monetary benefits should be limited for a period of one year prior to the date of the application, though they were notionally entitled to the higher pay with effect from 01. 01. 1986 based on the Fourth Pay Commission's recommendation. The petitioners were directed to implement the order within a period of two months from the date of the order.