SWARAJ RANJAN SEN GUPTA Vs. STATE OF WEST BENGAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This litigation has got a fairly long history. In 1954 the Director of Public Instruction invited applications for appointment to the posts of Sub -Inspector of Schools in the pay scale of Rs. 100 -225 from persons possessing Bachelor degree in the minimum with a degree or diploma in teaching. At that point of time no differentiation was made between the ordinary graduates and the graduates with Honours or persons holding a Master's degree. But after recruitment on the basis of the aforesaid announcement in 1959 the Government thought that they could attract people with better academic qualifications to the job only if a higher scale was offered to a candidate having an Honours degree or a Master's degree and, therefore, they raised the pay scale of persons holding an Honours or a Master's degree. The higher scale of pay was Rs. 130 -850, and this order was given retrospective effect from April 1, 1959. Subsequently in 1962 the pay scale of both the higher qualified and the ordinary graduates were revised as follows: ordinary graduates - -Rs. 125 -325 and graduates with Honours or holders of Master's degree Rs. 225 -475. In 1964, some of the Petitioners belonging to the category of ordinary graduates came and challenged the higher scale of pay which was being offered to the persons holding higher class of degrees as discriminatory inasmuch as both the ordinary graduates and the Honours graduates had been recruited on the basis of the same annoucement and had been treated alike with no differentiation on the basis of the higher degrees. The Court upheld the contention of the Petitioner of that case, namely, Civil Revision No. 253(W) of 1964 and held that, though the Government was free to make the differentiation in favour of the higher qualified officers prospectively by opening a new cadre, they could not make a differentiation with retrospective effect so as to affect those who had been recruited on the same footing and had acquired the right to be treated alike under Article 14 of the Constitution on the foundation of such recruitment. The Court, therefore, made the Rule absolute and passed the order in the following words:

(2.) If after the above order the Government had raised the pay scale of the ordinary graduates to the level of that of Honours graduates the present litigation would not have arisen, but what the Government did was to pull down the Honours graduates by issuing the order at annexs. B and C to the present petition by which the order of 1959 which had initially made a differentiation between the ordinary graduates and the Honours graduates and M.A.s, was withdrawn and both the classes were put on the same level at the higher intermediate scale of Rs. 175 -325. The Petitioners belong to the higher category. Eventually the Government has adhered to its policy of encouraging the higher qualified persons by opening a new grade of Deputy Inspector of Schools having the pay scale of Rs. 225 -475 as stated in para. 11 of the petition, by the Government order No. 2018 dated April 15, 1965, which is reproduced at annEx. Z to the counter -affidavit. Though ultimately the Petitioners have thus been rewarded for their higher qualification they still feel aggrieved because of the withdrawal of the notification of 1959 and 1962 altogether and by the ultimate paragraph at annEx. C which says:

(3.) But at the same time it must be said that a recovery of the amount which the Petitioners have already drawn in excess might cause hardship to the Petitioners in these days. Economically it would not be sufficient consolation to them that they have eventually got a proper assessment of their higher qualification. That, however, is a matter for consideration of the State Government and it might be reasonably expected that the process of recovery should be as smooth and easy as to give the least pain to the Petitioners. With these observations this Rule is discharged.