The High Court of Punjab and Haryana dismissed a writ petition where an employee of the Punjab State Electricity Board sought the pay scale of a Government Surveyor. The Bench held that equal pay principles do not apply across different establishments with separate pay management systems.
This page shows the compact analysis of this judgement. The full analysis — procedural history, issue-by-issue holdings with ratio and obiter, advocates, and paragraph-level evidence for every claim — is being added to the record in batches and will appear here when this judgement has been through it.
CWP No. 17406 of 1994
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IN THE HIGH COURT FOR THE STATES OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH
CWP No. 17406 of 1994 Date of decision: 15.02.2012
Bua Singh
....... Petitioner
Versus
The State of Punjab & others
........ Respondents
Coram: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE RAJIV NARAIN RAINA
Present : Mr. Nand Lal Sammi, Advocate for the petitioner.
Mr. N.S. Pawar, Addl. A.G., Punjab for respondent No.1.
Mr. Ankit Goel, Advocate for Mr. Govind Goel, Advocate for respondents No. 2 to 6.
RAJIV NARAIN RAINA, J.
CWP No. 17406 of 1994
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admissible to Punjab Government Employees holding that post. That petition was disposed of with a direction to the Secretary (Finance), PSEB to pass a speaking order on the petitioner's representation dated 25.11.1993. As a result of those directions, the order dated 12.8.1994 has been passed rejecting the claim, against which order the petitioner is before this Court.
“The nature of the work of the Surveyor of the Punjab Government and PSEB is absolutely similar and the rules and regulations made by the Punjab Government are applicable to the Punjab State Electricity Board as it is applicable to the Punjab State Electricity Board as it is a Unit of Punjab State Government. Therefore, the Punjab State Electricity Board can not discriminate between the Surveyor of PSEB with the Surveyor of Punjab Government on the principle of equal pay for equal work. When the Punjab Government Surveyor is getting the pay scale of Rs. 12002100, then the petitioner being employee of PSEB is also entitled to the pay scale of Punjab Government Surveyor i.e. Rs. 1200-2100.”
“Contents of para 13 are wrong and denied. There is no similarity amongst the surveyors working in the State of Punjab and the employees like the petitioner. Moreover, the answering respondent is a statutory body constituted under Section 5 of Electricity Supply Act and is governed by the statutory Rules and Regulations. For fixing/revising the pay scales,
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the Board constitutes it is own Pay Revision Committee and revises/fixes those scales in the light of its recommendations/proposals.”
“That para 13 of the written statement is totally wrong, hence denied and contents of para No.13 of the Writ Petition is re-asserted. Vide Annexure P-6, the respondent Board are being paid the revised pay scales to the other different categories of the Board and also ordered to be paid to the Surveyors Category and to Sh. Bua Singh, petitioner. But, uptill now the annexure P-6 has not been implemented by the respondents.”
dated 12.8.1994 (P-13) is as follows:-
“It has been noted that any employee cannot claim for parity with the pay scales admissible to the employees working under a different Management and it has been seen that the categories available in Punjab Government are different than the ones available in P.S.E.B. In the Punjab Government the three categories of Surveyors use to exist in different scales such as Junior Surveyor Rs. 450/800, Surveyor Rs. 400/660 and workcharge Surveyor Rs. 400/600. These have now been clubbed and redesignated as Surveyor in the scale of Rs. 1200-2100. In the case of P.S.E.B. workcharge Surveyors were working in the prerevised scale of Rs. 400/600 which after conversion upon revision works out to be Rs. 950/-1800 and this is the scale in which the applicant is presently working. The Board has further improved the scale of Rs. 950/1800 by giving an initial start of Rs. 1000/-. The Board has not revised the scales of workcharge categories (categiry-wise) but decided to allow the scale of the regular category where the scale and post are different the conversion scales are to be allowed which is Rs. 950/1800 for the categories enjoying pre-revised scale of Rs. 400/660 and Rs. 400/600.”
perused the record.
CWP No. 17406 of 1994
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CWP No. 17406 of 1994
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accorded to Surveyors of Land and Water Preservation and Barren Land Development Department w.e.f. 1.9.1993. Admittedly, the petitioner had been workcharge Surveyor throughout and was regularized only on 20.10.1994. So far as the question of 'equal pay for equal work' is concerned the principle would not apply in the facts and circumstances of this case. The Board has its own Pay Committee, which addresses issues of pay scales. The notifications and orders of the Punjab Government do not automatically bind the Board and only such notifications would apply as are adopted by the Board.
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petitioner before the Court worked for a Corporation and claimed wages payable to his counterparts in Government service. The prayer was turned down.
(RAJIV NARAIN RAINA) JUDGE
15.02.2012
'sp'
3 issues framed by the court
Whether an employee of a statutory body like PSEB can claim pay scale parity with the Superior Administration of Punjab Government based on equal pay for equal work.
Whether inter-office memos of the Board constitute final decisions creating a vested right to a higher pay scale.
Whether the principle of equal pay applies when employees work under different management with distinct pay revision mechanisms.
Colour shows how this judgement treated each authority
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State of Bihar and others v. Bihar Veterinary Association and others
Harbans Lal and others v. State of Himachal Pradesh and othersReferred¶44
Harbans Lal and others v. State of Himachal Pradesh and others
Bua Singh
The State of Punjab
Punjab State Electricity Board
Rajiv Narain Raina
As recorded by the court registry
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