Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Feb 12: The Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) Srinagar today directed the Government to extend the higher pay scale to the employees of Government Press as per the SRO 149 of 1973 as has been extended to other employees.
The Division Bench of D S Mahra (J) and Prasant Kumar (A) allowing the petition of 100 employees of the Government Press directed the Commissioner Secretary ARI & Trainings Department Government of J&K to extend the benefits of the SRO as has been extended to the other employees in the earlier round of litigation by the High Court.
The CAT said that it is a matter of record that the applicants are the employees of the Government Press, Srinagar wholly owned by the Government of Union Territory of J&K and as per SRO 149 of 1973 two categories of employees are working in the establishment.
“An employee having ITI in different trades having three years experience is entitled for higher pay/grade under SRO 149 of 1973. Similarly, Category-B of Schedule-C, mentioned in SRO 149 of 1973, are those employees who are not ITI certificate holders but working in different trades with seven years of experience and are entitled for the higher pay/grade under SRO 149/1973”, read the order.
The CAT said that since the employees under category-A have been extended the benefit of SRO 149 of 1973 by giving higher pay grade on the order of the Court and since the applicants are also similarly placed employees with seven years of experience, instead of three years service and are in Category-B, they are also entitled for the same treatment and entitled for the higher pay scale as provided under SRO 149 of 1973.
The CAT has held the contentions of the Government counsel as without substance that the applicant-employees were not a party in the writ petition before the High Court, the Division Bench of the High Court and before the Supreme Court, therefore, they are not entitled for the benefit of SRO 149 of 1973 and rejected these arguments advanced by the Government counsel.
“It is not for each and every individual to approach the court for similar relief. The individual employee cannot be dragged to litigation on this ground. It is for the respondent department /Govt. to extend the benefit granted by the court to the employees who are similarly placed without insisting for litigation before the courts”, CAT said.
The CAT has also made it clear that the writ court order passed in the year 2015 has been affirmed by the Division Bench of the High Court in the year 2017 as also the SLP filed by the Government against the High Court orders has been dismissed by Supreme Court in the year 2018 as such the writ court order attains finality and has been already complied with by the respondents in the year 2019. “The applicants cannot be denied the same benefit on the ground that they were not a party to the said petition in the earlier round of litigation before the High Court and Supreme Court”, read the order.
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