Jai Kishan and Others vs The State of Haryana and Others

Amarjeet Chaudhary, J.—This order will dispose of Civil Writ Petition Nos. 10254 of 1993, 519, 520, 521, 522, 4915, 4916, 5378, 6004, 6355, 11720 of 1994, 869 and 5428 of 1995 as common questions of law and fact are involved therein.

In all these petitions, the relief sought is for issuance of a direction to the respondents to grant higher pay scales to the petitioners from the date they acquired higher qualifications.

Learned counsel for the petitioners contends that though there are numerous pronouncements on this proposition yet the respondent-State is not granting higher pay scales to the petitioners from the date they acquired higher qualification. In order to fortify his submission, counsel relied upon Chaman Lal and Others Vs. State of Haryana, , Sh. Rattan Singh and Others Vs. The State of Haryana and Others, and recent judgment of this Court in Nirmala Devi and Ors. v. The State of Haryana and Ors., Civil Writ Petition No. 14688 of 1993, decided on 25.7.1995.

On the other hand, Mr. Sibal contends that the petitioners are not entitled to the higher pay scales.

After having considered the submissions of learned counsel for the parties and perusing the judgments aforesaid, we are of the view that the matter is squarely covered by the decision of the Supreme Court in Chaman Lal''s case (supra) as well as of the High Court in Rattan Singh''s case (supra) and Nirmala Devi''s case (supra).

It would be pertinent to mention here that the State of Haryana had preferred an appeal before the Supreme Court titled as State of Haryana and Anr. v. Om Prakash Arya and Ors. 1995(1) R.S.J. 219, against the orders of the High Court, which was dismissed by holding that the petitioners, in that case, were entitled to the higher pay scales in terms of the circular/letter dated July 23, 1957 issued by the erstwhile State of Punjab. In Nirmala Devi''s case (supra), we have recently held that ''if a judgment by the Apex Court or the High Court is delivered and the same achieves finality, the benefit of the said judgment is to be granted to all similarly situated persons."

For the reasons stated above, the writ petitions are allowed and the respondents are directed to release the pay scales to the petitioners as per their qualifications with effect from the date they acquired higher qualifications. The arrears of salary be paid to the petitioners within a period of six months. However, there will be no order as to costs.