Telecommunication
Research Centre Scientific Officers Vs. Union
of India & Ors [1987] INSC 15 (16 January 1987)
Venkataramiah,
E.S. (J) Venkataramiah, E.S. (J) Singh, K.N. (J)
CITATION:
1987 AIR 490 1987 SCR (1)1007 1987 SCC (1) 582 JT 1987 (1) 152 1987 SCALE (1)62
ACT:
Constitution
of India, 1950: Articles 14 and 16: Civil Services-Pay parity--Scientific and
Technical Officers, class I, Telecommunication Research Centre--Direct recruits
through Union Public Service Commission--Denied special pay admissible
to--Departmental Transferred Officers Class I--Held discriminatory and ultra vires.
HEAD NOTE:
The
recruitment to Class I posts in the Telecommunication Research Centre of the
Posts and Telegraphs Department is made partly by direct recruitment through
the Union Public Service Commission and partly through transfer of Group A and
Group B Field Officers. The officers brought into the Centre on transfer were
being paid special pay in addition to their pay. The direct recruits were
denied this privilege.
The
petitioners 2 to 22, members of the first petitioner-Association, who belong to
the direct recruits category and are working in the Centre on the same posts,
and possess same qualifications, discharge same functions and duties as the
transferred officers, and are in the same pay scales, assailed the denial of
special pay to them as discriminatory and violative of Articles 14 and 16 of
the Constitution.
Their
claim was contested by the Department and the discrimination was sought to be
justified on the ground that the direct recruits were. specifically recruited
to the Centre for a limited purpose and their capability, as against
transferred officers, selected by the Union Public Service Commission after
rigorous competitive examination, of taking. over a complete group and
directing them to fruitful research was doubtful.
Allowing
the writ petitions, the Court,
HELD:
1. Denial of special pay to Class I direct recruits in the Telecommunication
Research Centre amounts to violation of Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution.
They are entitled to the special pay at the same rates at which it is paid to
the transferred officers working in that Centre with effect from the date from
which the latter have been drawing it. [1013B-C] 1008
2.1 It
is not the case of the Government that the petitioners are not competent and
are not able to discharge their duties. All the relevant things such as
qualifications, functions, duties and responsibilities are the same as between
the direct recruits and the transferred officials. Their scale of pay is also
the same. [1011G-H]
2.2
The special pay is not being paid to the transferred officials for compensating
their displacement or for their qualifications. It is not deputation allowance.
It is paid for the arduous and special nature of the functions to be discharged
in the Telecommunication Research Centre. The rigorous test is applied while
transferring them to the Centre to prevent persons of inferior caliber amongst
them getting into it. It does not mean that persons who are directly recruited
and working in the Centre are inferior to those who enter the Centre by
transfer. Nor it could be said that the transferred officials had to perform in
the Centre duties which were not in their general line. There was, thus, no justification
to deny the special pay at the same rates to the direct recruits working in
that Centre. [1011H; 1012A-B; 1013A] Randhir Singh v. Union of India and
Others, [1982] 3 SCR, 298 and M.P. Singh & Others v. Union of India, Writ
Petition Nos. 13097--13176 of 1984, decided on January 16, 1987, applied.
Union
of India to pay special pay to the direct recruits with effect from the date on
which the transferred officers commenced to draw it upto date and to continue
to pay it in future also as long as the transferred officers continue to get
it. [1013C-D]
ORIGINAL
JURISDICTION: Writ Petition Nos. 3269-3290 of 1982 (Under Article 32 of the
Constitution of India).
M.S. Ganesh
for the Petitioners.
V.Kanth,
C.V. Subba Rao, Ms. Halida
Khatun, N.S. Das Bahl and D.N. Misra for the Respondents.
The
Judgment of the Court was delivered by VENKATARAMIAH, J. The first petitioner
in these petitions is the Telecommunication Research Centre Scientific Officers
(Class I) Association. The petitioners 2 to 22 are its members. They are
working 1009 as officers in the Telecommunication Research Centre of the Posts
and Telegraph Department which is directly under the control of the P&T
Board of the Ministry of Communications, Government of India. The
Telecommunication Research Centre is engaged in the research and development
work concerning the telecommunication equipment for the use of the Department
and in advising the P&T Board on relevant technical matters relating to the
introduction of new equipment and technology in the existing public
communication net work.
The
recruitment to the different cadres in the Telecommunication Research Centre is
now being made under the Scientific and Technical Officers Grade I
(Telecommunications Research Centre of the Posts and Telegraphs Department)
Recruitment Rules, 1962 (hereinafter referred to as "the Recruitment
Rules") framed by the President under the proviso to Article 309 of the
Constitution of India. During the period between 1956 and 1962 and further till
1965 all the Class I posts of the Scientific and Technical Officers Grade I
namely Assistant Director and Deputy Director were manned by the Transferred
Field Officers belonging to the Indian Telecommunication Service Group A and
Group B. For the first time the Union Public Service Commission advertised for
the recruitment of 10 Scientific and Technical Officers Grade I in the
Telecommunications Research Centre under the Recruitment Rules. These were
General Central Service Class I posts and they continue to be so till today. In
response to the said advertisement petitioners 2,3 and 4 applied for
recruitment and they were selected for appointment to the posts of S&T.O.
Grade I. At the time of the filing of these writ petitions there were in all 21
officers who had been recruited at the entry level of Junior Class I posts of S
& T.Os Grade I. They were recruited in four batches in 1965, 1967, 1970 and
1973.
The
Class I posts in the Telecommunication Research Centre consist of the following
posts:
1.
Director (Senior Adminstrative Grade Level I)
2.
Additional Director (Senior Administrative Grade Level II)
3.
Deputy Directors (Junior Administrative Grade)
4.
Assistant Directors (Senior Class I)
5.
Scientific and Technical Officers Grade I (Junior Class I).
The
Posts of Deputy Directors, Assistant Directors and S.T.Os Grade I are filled by
the following methods:
1010
(a) by
direct recruitment through the Union Public Service Commission, (The
petitioners belong to this category. They are now holding the posts of
Assistant Directors or Deputy Directors since 1975. Direct recruitment to the
Telecommunication Research Centre has been discontinued.)
(b) by
transfer of Group A Field Officers recruited through the Union Public Service
Commission by written examination followed by an interview, (These officers
belong to the Indian Telecommunication Service Group B) and
(c) by
transfer of Group B Field Officers who are Posts and Telegraphs departmental promotees
belonging to the Telegraph Engineering Service, Group.
The
direct recruits to which category the petitioners belong and the Transferred
Field Officers Group A working in the Telecommunication Research Centre
discharge same functions and duties. The qualifications for recruitment
prescribed in the case of both classes are the same. They are in the same pay
scales from 1.1. 1973 at the comparable levels/grades, i.e., Scientific and
Technical Officers Grade I, Assistant Directors and Deputy Directors as
recommended by the Third Pay Commission and accepted by the Government.
In these
petitions, the petitioners have raised two grounds, namely, the first relating
to the denial of promotional opportunities to them on account of the irregular
implementation of the rules of promotion contained in the Recruitment Rules and
the second relating to violation of Article 14 and Article 16 of the
Constitution by not granting them the same special pay which is granted to the
transferred officers who are working in the Telecommunication Research Centre
in the same posts and discharging the same functions as the petitioners.
Having
regard to the inadequacy of the material produced by both the sides before us
and to the fact that the officers who are likely to be affected by the decision
are not impleaded as parties by name to these petitions, we are of the view
that the first question should be left open to be decided by the Central
Administrative Tribunal. We accordingly express no opinion on the said
question.
The
second question relating to the grant of Special Pay requires 1011 to be
decided by us. It is seen that the Indian Telecommunication Service Officers
who are working in the Telecommunication Research Centre are being given
Special Pay of Rs. 300, Rs. 200 and Rs. 150 per month in addition to their pay
scales in the grades of Deputy Director, Assistant Director and Scientific and
Technical Officers Grade I respectively with effect from 1.1.1973. The direct
recruits to which category the petitioners belong are not given any Special Pay
in these grades and they are given only the pay at the pay scales prescribed
for them. It is stated that the total number of officers who are thus getting
Special Pay is of the order of 275 while only about 25 officers who are direct
recruits working in the Telecommunication Research Centre are not given Special
Pay paid to the others holding the same posts. A number of representations had
been made earlier by the direct recruits but all in vain. It appears that at
the official meeting held in May, 1979 with Shri J.A. Dave Secretary,
Communications, Government of India, there was consensus on the question of
granting of Special Pay to the direct recruits as in the case of transferred
officers as can be seen from the letter written by the Association on the
petitioners (Annexure XIX) and that the Director, Telecommunication Research
Centre also recommended for granting Special Pay accordingly. But nothing came
out of all this.
Hence
the petitioners have filed these petitions demanding payment of Special Pay to
them also.
The
discrimination between the direct recruits and the transferred officers
regarding the payment of Special Pay is attempted to be justified by the
Government in the Counter affidavit filed by Shri C.L. Sumon, Assistant
Director General (P & T Directorate). It is stated that the petitioners
(direct recruits) who are specifically recruited to the Telecommunication
Research Centre for a limited purpose are not entitled to any Special Pay but
the transferred officers from the Indian Telecommunications Service who are
selected by the Union Public Service Commission after a rigorous competition
examination need to be paid Special Pay. It is alleged that 'it is felt that
most of the direct recruits TRC officers may be good in small areas in which
they are working, but their capability of taking over a complete group and
directing them to fruitful research is doubtful'.
This
statement is a vague one and has the effect of adding insult to injury. This
allegation appears to be a lame excuse for denying what is legitimately due to
the direct recruits. It is not the case of the Government that the petitioners
are not competent and are not able to discharge their duties. All the direct
recruits are graduate engineers and have been working throughout in the
Telecommunication Research Centre. They do the same job as the transferred
officials. The Special Pay is not being paid to the 1012 transferred officials
for compensating their displacement or for their qualifications. It is not
deputation allowance. It is paid for the arduous and special nature of the functions
to be discharged in the Telecommunication Research Centre.
The
rigorous test is applied while transferring them to the Telecommunication
Research Centre to prevent persons of inferior caliber amongst them getting
into the said centre.
It
does not mean that persons who are directly recruited and working in the centre
are inferior to those who enter the centre by transfer. It is interesting to
note that the Minister of State for Communications answered the question
relating to non-payment of Special Pay in the Lok Sabha on March 30, 1982 thus:
"Question
No. 5864--Wi11 the Minister of Communications be pleased to state:
(c) whether
it is a fact that Special Pay is not given to a few graduate engineers
recruited specifically for TRC when the qualifications, functions, duties
and-responsibilities of these officers in TRC are the same as those of the
field officers transferred to TRC and what is the reason for not doing
so?" Answer--Minister of State for Communications:
".....................................................
2. The
officers specifically recruited for TRC through UPSC, are performing functions
for which they are recruited, while on the other hand, the officers drawn from
the ITS cadre, when posted in TRC. are required to perform duties, which are
not in their general line." It is seen from the above answer that the
Government had virtually admitted that all relevant things such as
qualifications, functions, duties and responsibilities are the same as between
direct recruits and the transferred officials and that the transferred
officials had to be paid extra amount by way of Special Pay in addition to
their scale of pay which is the same as the scale of pay of direct recruits
because the transferred officials had to perform in the Telecommunication
Research Centre duties which are not in their general line. In another part of
the same answer it was also admitted that many such transferred officials were
in the Telecommunication Research Centre for more than six years. Still the
Government did not show any eagerness 1013 to grant special pay to the direct
recruits also. We feel that there is no justification to deny the Special Pay
at the same rates to the direct recruits working in the Telecommunication
Research Centre. Denial of Special Pay in the above circumstances to the direct
recruits amounts to violation of Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution of
India.
Following
the decision of this Court in Randhir Singh v. Union of India and Others,
[1982] 3 SCR 298 and the decision of this Court in M.P. Singh & Others v. Union
of India, (Writ Petition Nos. 1309713 176 of 1984 decided today) we hold that
the direct recruits (to which category the petitioners belong) in the
Telecommunication Research Centre are entitled to the Special Pay at the same rates
at which it is paid to the transferred officers working in that centre with
effect from the date from which the transferred officers have been drawing the
Special Pay. We accordingly direct 'the Respondent No. 1--Union of India to pay
the special pay to the direct recruits with effect from the date on which the
transferred officers commenced to draw the Special Pay upto date and to
continue to pay it in future also as long as the transferred officers continue
to get it. The arrears of the Special Pay upto date payable to the direct
recruits shall be paid within four months from today.
The
above petitions are allowed to the above extent. The question relating to the
denial of promotional opportunities to the petitioners according to the
Recruitment Rules is left open to be agitated before the Central Administrative
Tribunal. No costs.
P.S.S.
Petitions allowed.
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