Jammu and Kashmir High Court: The Division Bench of Tashi Rabstan and Ali Mohammad Magrey, JJ., addressed the instant petition seeking for issuance of directions to the government for providing promotion opportunities to the persons working as restorers in the High Court. The Bench remarked,
“It is settled position of law that right of consideration for promotion to the next higher post is a fundamental right of an employee. Opportunity of advancement in service career by promotion is considered to be a normal incidence of service.”Ser
The grievance of the petitioners was that they were working as Restorers in the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir and that they had remained stagnated on the said posts as there were no promotional avenues available for them in terms of the rules governing the field. It was stated that the grade attached to the said posts of Restorers was Rs.2610-3450 (pre-revised) which was neither commensurate to the duties being performed by the petitioners nor at par with their counterparts working in the other High Courts of the country. The petitioners had filed a representation before the Registrar General of the High Court for seeking redressal of their grievances. The registrar, in return, had requested the government to accord approval for upgradation of pay scale of Restorers working in the High Court from 2610-3450 (pre-revised) to 3050-4910 (pre-revised).
However, despite there being recommendations for upgradation of pay scale the Government did not consider the case. The issue was threadbare discussed and examined by the High-Level Committee constituted for this purpose which was headed by Financial Commissioner, Finance Department. The Committee finally recommended that pay scale attached to the post held by all the employees working in the High Court could not be upgraded as it would lead to similar claims from similarly placed employees of the State Government and it may also result in pay anomalies.
Ultimately, keeping in view the demands of the employees, and also the direction passed by this Court in Joginder Singh v State, the government decided that special pay equivalent to the 10% of the basic pay may be allowed to the employees. The said benefit of the “Special Pay” had already been accepted by the employees and the Restorers had also been allowed the same benefit. The government contended that the case of the Restorers could not be examined in isolation from other employees of the High Court. Since, all the employees working in the High Court were governed by the same rules, same yardstick had to be adopted/ followed for each of such category of employees while considering their case of upgradation of pay scale.
The petitioners contended that the course of action adopted by the Government in intermingling the issue of upgradation of the grade attached to the posts of Restorers, with the grant of ‘Special Pay’ could not be countenanced at all.
The ‘Special Pay’ in favour of the employees working in the High Court was granted by the Government in recognition to the special duties being performed by such employees and same was a distinct element which, in no circumstance could be merged with the basic pay.
The Bench, after perusing the recruitment rules/ orders governing the service conditions of the petitioner-Restorers observed that the standing mode for filling up the available vacancies of Restorers in the High Court was 100% by direct recruitment, but, at the same time these Restorers had not been made the feeding cadre for any higher post, meaning thereby that there were no avenues for their promotion to the next higher post at all. The Bench expressed,
“Availability of reasonable promotional opportunities in service generates efficiency and fosters the appropriate attitude to grow for achieving excellence in service.”
The Supreme Court, in Council of Scientific and Industrial Research v. K.G.S. Bhatt, (1989) 4 SCC 635, in order to emphasize the importance of promotional avenues to obviate stagnation in service had held as follows:
“…an organization, public or private, does not ‘hire a hand’ but engages or employees a whole man. The person is recruited by an organization not just for a job, but for a whole career. One must, therefore, be given an opportunity to advance…Every management must provide realistic opportunities for promising employees to move upward.”
It had been repeated and reiterated in a catena of judicial dictums that absence of appropriate promotional prospects in service is bound to degenerate the employees. Stagnation in service on the same post for quite a long period of time and lack of any promotional avenues kills the desire to serve properly. The Bench observed,
“The petitioners have been discharging their duties on the posts of Restorers in the High Court since a long period of time with the legitimate expectation that in due recognition of such services being rendered by them, they will be provided appropriate promotional avenues as is the procedure prevalent with regard to the rest of the posts borne on the establishment of the High Court.”
The factum of stagnation in service qua the petitioners was clearly evident even to a naked eye as, in their entire length of service, not even a single promotional avenue was available to the petitioners. In view of the foregoing analysis, the Bench disposed of the instant petition by directing the Government to consider the recommendations of the High Court for upgradation of the grade attached to the posts of Restorers notwithstanding the grant of ‘Special Pay’ and pass appropriate orders thereon. Further, in view of the stagnation in service being faced by the petitioners, the Bench directed the Registrar of the High Court,to consider the case of the petitioners for exploring the possibility of creating suitable promotional avenues in favour of the petitioners by making appropriate amendment in the rules governing the field commensurate to the present status/ qualification of the petitioners. [Latif Hussain Khan v. State of JK, WP(C) No.1410/2019, decided on 26-02-2021]
Kamini Sharma, Editorial Assistant has reported this brief.
Appearance before the Court by:
For the Petitioner: Sr. Adv. Rohit Kapoor and Adv. Ankit
For the Respondents: Sr. AAG B. A. Dar and Adv. Masooda Jan
