K. Kannan, J. - (1.) The petitioners are seeking parity of their stipend with the DNB trainees at the Government Medical College & Hospital at Sector 32, Chandigarh. The petitioners are working in the Government Hospital, Sector 16, Chandigarh. Admittedly, it is the Chandigarh Administration which controls both the hospitals. The petitioners would refer to the policy statement issued by the National Board of Examination Postgraduate Medical Education & Training, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, regarding the stipend to DNB Trainees. A crucial clauses are 2, 3 and 6, and they are re-produced as under:- "2. DNB trainees shall be paid monthly stipend equivalent to the sum of paid to MD/MS/DM/MCH trainees by respective State Govt. in institutions owned by them. 3. The trainee (s) shall be paid monthly stipend as per clause (2) above or as mentioned in the table below which is higher. JUDGEMENT_206_LAWS(P&H)11_2014_1.html 6. Notwithstanding the above stipend to DNB trainees shall always be in equivalence to the sum paid by respective State Governments as they revise them from time to time, or, as mentioned in Clause (3) & (4), whichever is higher." The petitioners are aggrieved at the incorporation of the terms relating to stipend which are at variance with the scales given by the DNB trainees at the hospital at Sector 32, Chandigarh.
(2.) The counsel appearing on behalf of the respondents states that the trainees are assigned at various hospitals as per their ranking and preferences and the petitioners have been assigned to Sector 16 hospital, which follows the Punjab Government pattern of scales payable to MD/MS students. This, according to the respondents, shall be the justification for retaining differential for the stipend paid to the candidates in Sector 16 hospital to the stipend paid in the hospital Sector 32, which adopts a scale relatively higher because it is a teaching institution. When the counsel for the respondents was asked to explain whether an administration that runs two hospitals in the same city could apply different scales other than in a situation where the trainees in the teaching institutions are assigned additional duties or responsibilities such as undertaking classes for students or engaging in any activity which is different from the trainees at Sector 16, the counsel for the respondents says that there are no additional duties or functions and the difference is only on account of the fact that the administration has taken a decision to follow the Punjab Government in Sector 16 hospital, but has not chosen to adopt the same for sector 32 hospital.
(3.) On the own showing of the respondents, the decision to apply a different yardstick is arbitrary. If there is a difference that one is an educational institution and another is not and it is still a distinction without difference, if the responsibilities and the duties are not different from one hospital to another, as regards the training imparted to the DNB trainees in both the hospitals. The respondents' action is violative of Article 14 of the Constitution and it violates the salutary principle of equal pay for equal work as enunciated in Article 38 of the Directive of the State policy.;