AMARESHWAR SAHAY, J. - (1.) HEARD the parties.
(2.) IN this writ petition, the Writ Petitioner, who is a retired employee of Ranchi Municipal Corporation, has prayed for a direction to the respondents to give him the same pay scale of the post of Chief Accounts Officer at par with the Chief Accounts Officer working in Patna Municipal Corporation. According to the petitioner, the Chief Accounts Officer of Patna Municipal Corporation was getting the pay scale of Rs. 3,700 -5,000/ - whereas, the petitioner, who retired from the service as Chief Accounts Officer on 31.1.2004, was getting a lower pay scale of Rs, 1,400 - 2,600/ - which, according to the petitioner, is against the order and direction passed by the High Court in C.W.J.C. No. 2551 of 1991(R) wherein, the High Court issued a writ of mandamus to the State of Bihar to re -fix the scale of pay of the employees of the Ranchi Municipal Corporation at par with the employees of the Patna Municipal Corporation. According to the writ petitioner, he was initially appointed as an Assistant by the Ranchi Municipality in the year 1964 and, thereafter, in the year 1973, he was promoted to the post of Upper Division Clerk. In the year 1977, he was allowed to perform the duties of Accountant and, thereafter, when Ranchi Municipal Corporation was created in the year 1979, he was asked to perform the duties and responsibilities of the Chief Accounts Officer by issue of an order contained in Annexure -3 dated 11.4.1980.
(3.) FURTHER case of the petitioner is that in the year 1991, Ranchi Municipal Corporation Karamchari Sangh filed a Writ Petition before this Court being C.W.J.C. No. 2551 of 1991(R) in which, direction was made by this Court to the State to re -fix the salary of the employees of the Ranchi Municipal Corporation at par with the employees of the Patna Municipal Corporation. When the order of this Court passed in the Writ Petition was not being complied with, a contempt application was filed being M.J.C. No. 355 of 1996(R). The said M.J.C. No. 355 of 1996(R) was disposed of on 15.11.1996 by order as contained in Annexure -4 considering the fact that Mr. A.K. Singh, Deputy Administrator, Ranchi Municipal Corporation gave an undertaking to disburse the amount of Rs. 80 lacs, which was released by the State Government for payment of salaries to the employees of the Ranchi Municipal Corporation.;