Amreshwar Pratap Sahi, J. - (1.) We have heard Mr. Anil Kumar Sinha, Mr. Kumar Ravish and Mr. Kashyap Kaushal, learned counsels for the appellants, Mr. Kumar Kaushik and Mrs. Namrata Dubey, learned counsels for the respondents.
(2.) The dispute giving rise to this appeal is by those who were initially appointed as extra clerks in the Department of Registration, Govt. of Bihar in the pay-scale of Rs. 975-1540/-. They were appointed as such in the year 1996-97 as is evident from the discussion made in the impugned judgment of the learned Single Judge. It is therefore undisputed that all the respondentpetitioners were appointed as Extra Clerks and given a temporary status in the pay-scale of Rs. 975-1540/- in the year 1996-97.
(3.) Some of the respondent-petitioners had retired and some were at the fag end of their service when the writ petition came to be filed for a direction to grant them the pay-scale of Upper Division Clerks of the Department of Registration from the date of initial appointment. The foundation of the entire submission of the respondent-petitioners was that since the cadre of Lower Division Clerk and Upper Division Clerk have already merged into one cadre of Clerk on 24th of May, 1980 then they were all entitled to the same scale of pay that was admissible to Upper Division Clerks as there was no other cadre in existence. The scale of pay as given to them at the time of initial appointment was erroneously not revised in the correct pay-scale and the respondent-petitioners were wrongly given the pay-scale of Lower Division Clerk. The basic argument was that when merger had already taken place in the year 1980 then at the time of appointment of the respondentpetitioners, the Lower Division Clerks became entitled to the payscale of Upper Division Clerk as there was no cadre of that of Lower Division Clerk in existence. The revised pay-scale, therefore, of Rs. 4,000-6,000/- to Upper Division Clerk was admissible to the respondent-petitioners and in spite of the representations made in the year 2011 no decision had been taken. It is with this grievance that some other temporary clerks of the Department of Registration had preferred CWJC No. 6107 of 1992 that was disposed of on 01.01.1997 and pursuant thereto it is alleged that the State Government decided to treat temporary clerks equal to Remunerative Copyist in the pay-scale of 4,000- 6,000/- vide a Memo dated 01.09.1998.;