Allahabad High Court: In a writ petition filed against the validity of the order which rejected petitioner’s representation and claim seeking grant of minimum of pay scale, Alok Mathur, J held that the petitioners are also entitled for minimum of pay scale as is being granted to regular employees as the same services are being rendered by them.
The Court noted that while rejecting the claim of the petitioners, respondents did not consider the case of the petitioner for grant of minimum of pay scale, rather considered granting of regular scale regarding fixation of salary of the State Government employees for regular scale of pay as well as for contract workers. Further, the Court said that the case of the petitioner was not for grant of regular scale of pay but for grant of minimum of pay scale.
The Court noticed that the State Legal Services Authority had made repeated requests to the State Government for creation of two posts of Peons and two post of Clerks and when for a long time the posts were not created, then considering the requirement and urgency of personnel, the petitioners were appointed on contract basis on Rs. 5000/- per month. After their appointment they are working and the Legal Services Authority has been taking work from them in various places including in the Counseling and Conciliation Centre, Lucknow.
The Court placed reliance on State of Punjab v. Jagjeet Singh, (2017) 1 SCC 148, wherein it was held that “the persons who have been appointed and are continuously discharging duties commensurate with regularly appointed persons are also entitled to be paid the same wages in accordance with the provisions of equal pay for equal work”, and said that in the present case the petitioners have been working for a substantially long length of time and are earning only Rs.7500/- per month, which admittedly is below the minimum wages fixed by the State Government. Thus, it was held that the petitioners qualify for being granted minimum of pay scale equivalent to regular employees as the same services are being rendered by them.
Therefore, the Court, while quashing the order passed by the State Government, allowed the writ petition with the directions to pass fresh orders granting minimum of pay scale to the petitioners expeditiously.
[Sukh Vir Singh v. State of U.P. , 2022 SCC OnLine All 779, decided on 11-11-2022]
Advocates who appeared in this case :
For Petitioners: Advocate Amrendra Nath Tripathi;
Advocate Manish Misra;
For Respondents: Chief Standing Counsel Deepanshu Das;
Advocate Niteesh Kumar.
