P.B.MUKHARJI, J. - (1.) THIS is a suit instituted by three plaintiffs who are all pump drivers in the mechanical engineering department of the Commissioners for the Port of Calcutta. The defendants are the Commissioners for the Port of Calcutta and their Chairman.
(2.) THE reliefs claimed by the plaintiffs in this suit are a declaration that the report of the Jeejeebhoy Committee fixing the scales of pay prescribed for the different classes and categories of posts including the post of pump drivers is binding on the defendants and a further declaration that the plaintiffs are entitled to a scale of pay of Rs. 60 -3 -81 -E. B. -4 -105 prescribed for the pump drivers by the report of the said Jeejeebhoy Committee. The plaintiffs also asked for a mandatory injunction directing the defendant to implement the report of the said committee including the scales of pay mentioned above. The plaintiffs' case brifly is as follows : They are pump drivers in the mechanical engineering department of the Commissioners for the Port of Calcutta. The Government of India by a resolution dated 23rd August 1958 set up a committee with Mr. F. Jeejeebhoy as the Chairman to undertake the work of classification and categorization of Classes III and IV posts in the major ports of Bombay, Calcutta, Madras, Cochin, Kandla and Visakhapatnam. The resolution is alleged to have directed the said committee to examine the duties and responsibilities of the various posts and fit into one or the other of the scales of pay given in the schedule attached to that resolution. It is also provided in paragraph 4 of that resolution that the recommendations of the Jeejeebhoy Committee shall be final and binding on the port authorities as well as the labour. It is said that the committee submitted its report on the 28th May 1961 to the Government of India and the recommendations of the committee came into force with retrospective effect from the 1st October 1957. It is alleged that the committee recommended for the pump drivers in the mechanical engineering department the scale of pay of Rs. 60 -3 -81 -E. B. -4 -105.
(3.) WHAT happened thereafter was that the report of that committee was placed before the Commissioners for the Port of Calcutta who at their 10th meeting of the 19th August 1961 and by resolution No. 1132 adopted at that meeting to allow all class III and class IV employees of the defendant commissioners the option either to retain their existing scales of pay or elect for the scales fixed by the said committee.;