Shree Chandrashekhar, J. - (1.) In essense, prayer of the petitioners in this batch of writ petitions is for grant of minimum of pay scale.
(2.) Briefly stated, some of the petitioners have been working under the respondent-department since 1988. Most of them were engaged more than a decade ago; some of them in the year 1992 and some in the year 1993 as well. They have been working as Jeep Driver, Khalasi, Nalkup Khalasi, Key-men-cum-Choukidar and Plumber. They are called Shrampust employees and they are paid through hand-receipts. Previously, several writ petitions were filed in this Court viz. W.P.(S) Nos. 4731 of 2001, 4720 of 2001, 5387 of 2002 and 5533 of 2008. In all these writ petitions, an order for payment of wages in the minimum scale of pay has been issued by the Court. The directions issued by the Court were complied by the respondent-State. This is reflected in order dated 4-1-2011 which was issued in compliance of order dated 7-11-2009 passed in W.P.(S) No. 5533 of 2008.
(3.) Still, the respondents have resisted the prayer of the petitioners for grant of wages in the minimum scale of pay. Plea taken by the respondent-State is that after 1-1-1988 no appointment on Class-III or Class-IV posts under the Regular establishment/Work charge establishment/Muster roll or on Hand receipt has been sanctioned by the Government. A letter dated 4-4-1989 was issued in this regard. This has been reiterated in letter dated 3-1-1997 issued by the Police Health and Engineering Department, Government of Bihar. Another plea taken by the respondent-State is that minimum wages can be paid for the corresponding post on which one has been engaged, however, since the petitioners are working on the posts which have not been sanctioned, they cannot be granted wages in the minimum scale of pay.;