- (1.) This petition filed under Article 226 of the Constitution prays for quashing order dated 5.9.2001 (P-11) passed by the Financial Commissioner & Principal Secretary, Govt. of Haryana, Finance Department, Chandigarh. In pursuance to the direction issued by this Court in CWP No. 3656 of 2001 which was earlier filed by the petitioners and disposed of on 14.3.2001, the representation has been rejected by the impugned order and the petitioners feeling aggrieved, have approached this Court.
(2.) Facts in brief are that petitioner No. 1 Pravin Kumar Singh has been working on the post of Assistant Director (Demography) and petitioner No. 2 Ashutosh has been working as Statistical Officer in the Health Department of respondents-State. They have claimed higher scale of pay on two grounds. Firstly, it is asserted that the pay scale of 6500-10,500 w.e.f. 1.1.1996 for the post of Assistant Director (Demography) and that of the feeder post of Statistical Officer/Statistician in the Health Department has been the same. According to the petitioners the pay scale of promotional post must be higher than the pay scale of feeder post. Likewise, petitioner No. 2 has claimed that for promotion to the post of Statistician higher pay scale are required to be granted. Secondly, these posts in the department of Health are equivalent and identical to the post of Deputy Economic and Statical Adviser (in brief Deputy E.S.A.) and District Statistical Officer/Research Officer in the department of Economic and Stastical Organisation. The petitioners have claimed that the nature of duties, responsibilities and functions of both the posts in two services are similar in nature. It is maintained that the petitioners working in Health Department coordinate with the other department so as to implement the National Programmes. Their main duty is to compile, interpolate and analyse the data for the State so as to assist the policy formation. The data provided by Health Department has been claimed to be more significant than the data of any other department as it directly relates to the human being and society and, therefore, there is no qualitative and quantitative difference in the nature of duties and responsibilities in the functions of both the departments. The impugned order is challenged on the ground that an imaginary distinction has been drawn in order to circumvent the legitimate rights of the petitioners. The petitioners have founded their claim by placing reliance on a judgment of this court in case of Sunder Lal Jain v. State of Haryana and others,1995 2 RSJ 95. The pay scale granted to the petitioners are 6500-10500 whereas the pay scale granted to the Research Officer/District Statistical Officer in ESO Department is 7450-11500. The petitioners have also claimed that the method of recruitment, qualification of both the posts in the aforementioned two departments are identical.
(3.) In the written statement filed by the respondents-State, the stand taken is that the pay scales of government employees in Haryana were revised in the year 1987 w.e.f. 1.1.1986 keeping in view the recommendations of 4th Pay Commission and in the process 70 old pay scales were bunched into 30 pay scales. As a consequence the scales of promotional and feeder post became identical. To remedy the aforementioned anomaly the clarificatory letter was issued on 7.3.1988 with the direction that in cases where the pay scale of feeder and promotional posts are identical then on promotion the pay of the Government employee was to be fixed at next higher stage under the provisions of Rule 4.4(a) of the Punjab Civil Services Rules, Volume 1 Part I. A copy of the letter has been placed on records as Annexure R-II. The clarificatory letters have also been written on 2.3.2001 and 20.4.2001 (R-II and R-IV) and it has been claimed that the rule could take care of such a situation by providing for fixation in next higher grade provided an employee moves from feeder cadre to promotional cadre in the same pay scale. The second ground raised by the petitioners in respect of equation of posts with Dy. E.S.A., has also been rebutted by placing reliance on a judgment of the Supreme Court in case of Secretary, Finance Department v. West Bengal Registration Service Association and others, 1992 2 SCT 301. It has been claimed that there is no executive order passed by the respondents-State by equating the post of Assistant Director (Demography) and Statistician in the department of Economic and Statistical Organisation and, therefore, in the absence of any order of equivalence of the posts no parity as of right in the scale of pay could be claimed by the petitioners. The respondents have also placed reliance on various cases to highlight the distinction between the hierarchy of the various posts in both the departments. The service in both the departments is governed by separate statutory rules. The petitioners are governed by Haryana Health Department, non-medical Gazetted Officers Statistical (Group B) Services Rules, 1995 (for brevity to be referred as Health Rules). These rules cover the post of Assistant Director (Demography) and Statistical Officer/Statistician. The post of Deputy ESA and Research Officer are governed by the rules known as Punjab Economic and Statistical Organization (Group A) Services Rule, 1963 as amended in 1996 (for brevity ESO Rules) and Haryana Economic and Statistical Organisation (Group 'B').;