LODHA, J. - (1.) THIS special appeal is at the instance of the State Government taking exception to the judgment dated 8t September, 1992 passed by the Single Judge in Writ Petition filed by the present respondents. For the sake of convenience we shall refer to the present appellants, "the Government" and the present respondents "the petitioners. "
(2.) THE petitioners prayed in the writ petition that the Government be directed to give pay scale of 860-1750 to the Legal Assistants and pay scale of 1000-1860 to the Head Legal Assistants with effect from 1st September, 1981. The petitioners founded their claim on better pay scale on the recommendations made by the Law Reforms and Legal Services Committee headed by the then Advocate General Dr. L. M. Singhvi (for short, "law Reforms Committee") and the recommendations of the B. P. Beri Pay Commission (for short `beri Pay Commission' ). The petitioners also claimed that the Legal Assistants belonged to the Rajasthan Legal Service and, therefore, they must be accorded pay scales of the Rajasthan Administrative Service, Rajasthan Police Service, Rajasthan Accounts Service, Rajasthan Judicial Service etc. , the said pay scale being 1000-1860. The Government contested the claim of the petitioners and denied that the Legal Assistants and the Head Legal Assistants were entitled to the pay scales of Rajasthan Administrative Service, Rajasthan Police Service, Rajasthan Accounts Service and Rajasthan Judicial Service. The Government also denied their claim that the Legal Assistants were entitled to the pay scale of 760-1420 and the Head Legal Assistants the pay scale of 900-1600. The Government also took the stand that no relief could be granted to the petitioners in exercise of writ jurisdiction under Article 226 of the Constitution of India since no such mandamus could be issued. The Single Judge rejected the claim of the petitioners of parity of the post of Legal Assistant with the Rajasthan Administrative Service, Rajasthan Police Service, Rajasthan Accounts Service and the Rajasthan Judicial Service. In the words of the Single Judge it is too tall a claim of the petitioners to compare the post of Legal Assistants with that of the Rajasthan Judicial Service. He found the comparison wholly misconceived. The Single Judge also did not go into the question as to whether the post of Legal Assistant is state service post or a subordinate service post because this controversy was a subject matter of dispute in Writ Petition No. 1565/1985. (We may immediately notice here that writ petition No. 1565/1985 was not pressed by the petitioners before us and we dismissed that writ petition today by a separate order.)
(3.) TREATING the post of Legal Assistant to be a post in a subordinate service, the Single Judge was of the view that it should be considered as the highest post in the subordinate service and should be treated at par with the post in the subordinate service carrying the highest pay scale. According to the Single Judge the post of Legal Assistant should have been in the pay scale No. 14 (2000-3200) as was for the other posts like Police Inspector, Assistant Accounts Officer, Assistant Research Officer, Program Computer who have been carrying the pay scale No. 14. In the opinion of the Single Judge since the post of Head Legal Assistant was a post two pay scales higher than that of Legal Assistant, the post of Higher Legal Assistant should be in the pay scale No. 16 (2200-4000 ). Relying upon the judgment of this Court in the case of S. K. Ghosh vs. State of Rajasthan (1984 RLR 966) and Padam Kumar Jain vs. State of Rajasthan (1987 (2) RLR 807), the Single Judge held that there was no difficulty in directing the Government to act in accordance with the recommendations of the Law Reforms Committee as there was no justification why the said recommendations have been put in oblivion. The Single Judge, accordingly, directed the Government to give due regard to the recommendations made by the Law Reforms Committee and make appropriate provisions so as to give pay scale No. 14 (2000-4000) to the holders of the post of Legal Assistants and pay scale No. 16 (2200-3200) to the holders of the post Head Legal Assistants from 1st September, 1988 i. e. the date from which the Rajasthan Civil Services (Revised Pay Scale) Rules, 1989 came into force. The correctness of the directions given by the Single Judge in his order dated 8th September, 1992 is the core issue before us. ;