Content Provider | Supreme Court of India |
---|---|
e-ISSN | 30484839 |
Language | English |
Access Restriction | NDLI |
Subject Keyword | Service law |
Content Type | Text |
Resource Type | Law Judgement |
Jurisdiction | India |
Case Type | Appeal |
Court | Supreme Court of India |
Disposal Nature | Appeal Dismissed |
Headnote | Service law: Department of Indian Audit and Accounts-Promotion-Supervisor claiming promotion to cadre of Assistant Accounts Officer-On the ground that pay-scales of Supervisors and S.Os. are identical and duties and responsibilities of Supervisors/S.Os./A.A.Os. are similar-Various Tribunals rejecting the claim of persons similarly placed-However, one of the Tribunals allowing the same-Cross Appeals-Held, claimants cannot be promoted as A.A.Os since they have not acquired the qualification of passing Section Officers grade examination and got promoted to the post of Section Officers and put in three years regular service-Tribunal which allowed the claim erred in doing so. Framing/changing of rules relating to services-Statutory Tribunals/ State Government-Jurisdiction-Held, Tribunal cannot direct the Government to have a particular method of recruitment or eligibility criteria or avenues of promotion or impose its views on .the State Government. Various cadres of establishment in Indian Audit and Accounts Department relating to the office of the Accountant Generals in the States were bifurcated into AG (Accounts & Entitlement) and AG (Audit). Prior to bifurcation, posts of Supervisors, Selection Grade Supervisors as well as Section Officers and Selection Grade Section Officers existed separately. Section Officers were considered senior to Supervisors and promotion to higher posts of Accounts Officers was open to Section Officers only and not to Supervisors. After bifurcation, there was no cadre of Supervisors in the Audit Wing, the existing staff of Supervisors were not allowed to switch over to the Audit office. Option was given to such of those who desired to get reverted to Audit Offices. Appellants who were in the combined establishment. chose to remain with A & E Office. Recommendations of Fourth Central Pay Commission were implemented. 'Selection Grades' were abolished from all non-gazetted cadres in all Departments of Government of India all over the country, including the Department of IA & AD. Pay scales were brought on par in both the offices with eligibility criteria on same lines. There was no cadre of Supervisors in Audit stream but only the cadre of Section Officers/ Assistant Audit Officers-cadre of qualified hands alone existed, the criteria of passing SOG Examination to get into the pay-scale of Assistant Accounts Officers. Then the existing Selection Grade Supervisors, who were already holding the higher scale of post identical to Assistant Accounts Officers cadre, were allowed to continue in that scale treating their pay as "personal pay" to them.Appellants-Supervisors in the office of A & E claimed that since payscales of Supervisors and S.Os. are identical and duties and responsibilities of Supervisors/S.Os/A.A.Os. are similar, they should also be given promotion as S.G. Supervisors or Assistant Accounts Officers. Tribunal rejected the claim. The claim of persons similarly placed was also rejected. However, Tribunal at Cuttack allowed the claim of persons similarly placed. Hence the present cross appeals. Appellants-private parties contended that their service rights are to be governed by the rules relating to their service as on the date of bifurcation on 3.1.1984 and that the rules and the service conditions cannot be altered to their detriment by the subsequent rules; that appellants, working as Supervisors, are also performing duties that are discharged by Assistant E Accounts Officers and they would, therefore, be entitled to the scale of pay of A.A.Os on the principle of 'equal pay for equal work'; and that there was denial of promotional prospects to the category of Supervisors.Union of India and the Department contended that in the light of the statutory rules made after bifurcation governing the recruitment to the posts of Assistant Accounts Officers, one should pass the Section Officers Grade Examination and inasmuch as appellants and persons similarly placed in other States have not got qualified themselves by passing SOG Examination, they are ineligible to be considered for promotion as A.A.Os.; that the right of Government to bifurcate departments and suitably restructure them in the interest of better administration and in order to ensure greater efficiency is unquestionable and as long as appellants do not conform to the revised pattern and satisfy the requirement of the statutory rules governing the service conditions, no grievance of denial of equal opportunity or discrimination could' be made; that constitution, frame and reconstitution and restructuring of departments, creation and abolition of posts, therein are matters of policy depending upon administrative exigencies and exclusively within the discretion of Government and as such the same could neither be challenged nor Tribunal at Cuttack could substitute its views to that of the "Government, as to how it should be; that common seniority list of Supervisors and Section Officers was prepared only for the limited purpose and for the period to facilitate the grant of non-functional selection grade. |
Judge | Hon'ble Mr. Justice Doraiswamy Raju |
Neutral Citation | 2002 INSC 566 |
Petitioner | P.u. Joshi And Ors. |
Respondent | The Accountant General, Ahmedabad And Ors. |
SCR | [2002] Supp. (5) S.C.R. 573 |
Judgement Date | 2002-12-19 |
Case Number | 4679 |
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