- (1.) The twenty-seven petitioners who are all Laboratory Technicians in the Uttar Pradesh Rural Institute of Medical Sciences And Research, Saifai1 have petitioned this Court seeking the following reliefs: (a) Quashing of an advertisement dated 27 August 2006 to the extent it provided that the Laboratory Technicians would be appointed in a pay scale Rs. 4000-6000 in place of Rs.4500-7000; (b) Quashing of the appointment letters issued to the petitioners to the extent that it provided for a pay scale of Rs.4000-6000 in place of Rs.4500-7000; (c) Quashing of the resolution of the governing body of the Institute dated 28 June 2008 as well as the consequential order passed by the Director on 10 July 2008; (d) To grant to the petitioner the pay scale of Rs. 4500-7000 with arrears of pay scale from the date of their initial appointment; and (e) Grant of the new scale of Rs.5000-8000 being the scale of pay made effective from 28 July 2007 for Laboratory Technicians engaged in the Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences2.
(2.) For the purposes of consideration of the issues raised and canvassed before this Court the following undisputed facts may at first be noticed.
(3.) SGPGI came to be established in terms of the provisions of the Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences Act, 19833 with the object of it being established as a center of excellence for providing medical care, educational and research facilities in the field of medical sciences in the existing super specialties and such others as may emerge in the future. The objects and function of the SGPGI as set forth in the 1983 Act indicate that it was envisaged to function not just as a referral hospital but also as a super specialty center, a venue for experiment and research and also to provide for post graduate teaching, holding of examinations and conferment of degrees, diplomas and other academic distinctions. With an objective of providing medical facilities in rural areas the State decided to establish a satellite center of SGPGI at Safai. This satellite center was to work under the aegis and control of SGPGI. In 2005 the State formed an opinion that the effective functioning of the above satellite center at Safai was being hampered on account of the control of its affairs by SGPGI, which was locationed at Lucknow. It was also found that the objectives of the satellite center and SGPGI were different and accordingly it was thought fit that the satellite center be transposed into an independent and autonomous medical Institute. With the above objectives in mind the State Legislature passed the Uttar Pradesh Rural Institute of Medical Sciences And Research Safai Act, 2005 [Act No. 27 of 2005];