B.P. Banerjee, J. - (1.) This is an application for stay of operation of the order passed by the Mayor -in -Council of the Calcutta Municipal Corporation dated April 23, 1983. By the said order the higher pay fixed by the Respondents in respect of the Appellants/Petitioners with effect from September 8, 1981, was reduced with effect from May 1, 1993. It was also provided that no recovery of the amount overdrawn for the period from September 8, 1981 to April 30, 1993, would be made as the same was paid. The learned trial Judge held: Finding a prima facie case there will be an interim order to this extent that the Respondent C.M.C. authorities will not take any steps for deduction from the salary of the Petitioner for the past period without the leave of the Court. Regarding current pay the Respondent will maintain a separate account and keep the excess amount which, according to them, has occurred due to mistake until the matter is decided on merit.
(2.) The facts of the case in short is that the Appellants/Petitioners were all Accounts Inspectors under the Calcutta Municipal Corporation and that they were initially appointed on regular basis as Junior Copyists in Tollygunge Tax Department of erstwhile Corporation of Calcutta now known as Calcutta Municipal Corporation with effect from May 12, 1969. It was the case of the Appellants/Petitioners that one Shri Shankar Bose was also appointed in similar post and similar pay -scale to that of the Appellants/Petitioners and that all of them were transferred from Tollygunge to the main office exempting Shankar Bose who was posted to the Secretary's department attached to Mayor's office at the Central Office of the erstwhile Corporation of Calcutta. In case of Shankar Bose a special pay of Rs. 50 was given with effect from April 1, 1981 and that the Appellants/Petitioners also demanded the said benefit on the basis of equal pay for equal work. It appears that the Appellants/Petitioners were senior to the said Shankar Bose and that the pay of the Appellants/Petitioners was made at par with that of Shankar Bose with effect from September 8, 1991. Admittedly, the Petitioners were enjoying the same benefit from September 8, 1981. Six other employees, viz. Sujit Baran Mukherjee and others who were similarly posted and claimed also equal pay for the equal work and/or the pay protection. Relying upon the fact the Appellants/Petitioners were granted the same benefit.
(3.) The case of Sujit Baran Mukherjee and five others ultimately came up for hearing in Matter No. 5511 of 1987 before the learned trial Judge. The learned trial Judge by the order dated April 27, 1992, allowed the writ application of Sujit Baran Mukherjee and others, directing the Respondents to give those writ -Petitioners same scale of pays as 11 others who were the Appellants/Petitioners herein and whose case was referred in para. 28 of that writ application with effect from the same date from which the Appellants/Petitioners who are 11 in number granted that benefit.;