“13. The rule apparently has been framed to protect the pay of the government servant who though senior to his junior counterpart gets a lower pay-even though for a temporary period, merely because his due date of increment happens to be later. If the object was to protect the pay of the senior government servant, strict compliance of the other condition that the pay of the junior should be less in the existing pay scale, may render the object haywire. Where a literal interpretation is likely to defeat the purpose of any enactment or rule, it is permissible to read down the provision so as to achieve the purpose. The possibility of two government servants drawing maximum pay in the existing scale of pay cannot be ruled out and therefore, if rule 14 were to be strictly followed, and the second condition were to be strictly enforced, the senior government servant may not be able to get the benefit of pay protection under rule 14(1). Where the pay of both of them was fixed at the same stage, it would still result in anomaly if the junior government servant gets more pay earlier merely because his date of increment happens to be earlier. But the date of increment cannot be postponed. The due date of increment is fixed under the rules, namely, the Rajasthan Service Rules and the right of the person to get the increment on the due date which flows from the rule cannot be denied to him. The only option available to the authority is to prepone the due date of increment of the senior government servant by stepping up his pay/date of increment, in order to remove the anomaly.”
