The Himachal Pradesh High Court recently quashed the decision of the state government taken in 2019 whereby it refused to accede to the recommendations made by the HC Chief Justice for a 20% hike in the existing pay scale of the high court employees.
The bench of Justice Tarlok Singh Chauhan and Justice Sandeep Sharma observed that the government had given no strong and cogent reasons for refusal of the recommendations.
The court said that as far as the nature of duties and responsibilities shouldered by the staff of the state secretariat and the high court are concerned, there is a vast difference.
“Unlike, the State Secretariat, the staff of the High Court have to strive hard to accomplish the given task…The duty hours of the staff of the High Court normally and invariably get stretched and extended to odd hours and they are more often than not required to work till late in the night,” the bench pointed out.
It further added that most of the work assigned to the staff of the HC is required to be accomplished and/or completed in a time-bound manner and cannot be delayed. “Such nature of work is required to be discharged by the employees of the High Court from the date of the commencement of their service till their retirement,” the bench stated.
Therefore, taking into account the peculiar nature of work expected out of the staff of the judiciary, the court held that fixation of the same scale of pay to the staff of the state secretariat and the staff of the high court is not warranted.
The division bench was dealing with a writ petition filed by Himachal Pradesh High Court, Non-Gazetted Employees/Official Employees Association, seeking directions to the state government to bring parity in the pay scales of employees of the HC registry with their counterparts in Punjab and Haryana High Court.
The petitioner association argued that the state of Himachal Pradesh right from its inception on attaining statehood in 1971 had been following the state of Punjab insofar as the pay scales, allowances, and other amenities are concerned.
It, therefore, demanded that since the government of India granted a hike of 20% in the existing pay to the employees serving in Punjab and Haryana High Court with effect from 01.01.2006, a similar provision should also be made for the employees of the Himachal Pradesh High Court.
The association also informed the court that a representation on this behalf had been made to the HC in 2012, which was “recommended” and “sent” to the state government by the High Court Chief Justice in the same year.
However, keeping the matter lingering on for a long while, ultimately in 2017, the state authorities rejected the proposal submitted by the high court mainly on the ground that the employees of the HC had already been granted enhanced pay scales (pay band and grade pay) with effect from 01.10.2012 at par with the pay scales of other state government employees.
Thereafter, a meeting was held in 2019, where the government refused to accede to the recommendations made by the Chief Justice.
Regarding this act of the government, referring to Article 229 of the Constitution of India, the bench held that the chief secretary to the state government of Himachal Pradesh ought to have placed the recommendations of the Chief Justice before the governor for approval on the principle of comity rather than filtering it to lower levels.
Accordingly, the court set aside the decision of the state government and ordered the present judgement to be placed before the Chief Justice to constitute a committee to assess the demands of the petitioner association, keeping in view the duties performed by the employees of the adjoining high courts of Punjab and Haryana and Delhi before again recommending the demanded pay pattern.
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