Bombay High Court
Gangabai Ramchandra Kachave vs The State Of Maharashtra Through ... on 3 July, 2023
Bench: Mangesh S. Patil, Shailesh P. Brahme
42WP7258.2023
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE OF BOMBAY
BENCH AT AURANGABAD
WRIT PETITION NO. 7258 OF 2023
GANGABAI RAMCHANDRA KACHAVE
VERSUS
THE STATE OF MAHARASHTRA THROUGH ITS PRINCIPAL
SECRETARY AND OTHERS
...
Advocate for Petitioner : Mr. S.N. Janakwade
AGP for Respondent Nos. 1 & 2 : Mr. P.S. Patil
Advocate for Respondent Nos.3 & 4 : Mr. S.R. Yadav-Lonikar
CORAM : MANGESH S. PATIL &
SHAILESH P. BRAHME, JJ.
DATED : 03 JULY 2023
PER COURT ( PER : SHAILESH P. BRAHME, J) :
1. Heard learned counsel for the petitioner, learned AGP for
respondent nos. 1 and 2 and learned counsel Mr. Lonikar, for
respondent nos. 3 and 4.
2. With their consent the matter is decided finally at the
admission stage.
3. Petitioner is praying for notional increment which was
payable to her after her superannuation and the consequential revision
of the retiral benefits.
4. The petitioner was appointed as Auxiliary Nurse Midwife
(ANM) under Zilla Parishad, Parbhani. She was superannuated on 30
42WP7258.2023
June 2022. She was entitled to annual increment as prescribed by
Maharashtra Civil Services (Revised Pay) Rules, 2009 (for short 'the
Rules'). As per Rule 10, the said increment would be payable on 01
July.
5. Due to superannuation on 30 June 2022, the petitioner
was deprived of annual increment payable on 01 July, which was due
after her superannuation. She was entitled to the increment because
she has earned it by rendering service for one year preceding her
superannuation.
6. The issue involved in this matter is no more res integra.
It is settled by following judgments :
i. P. Ayyamperumal Versus The Registrar Central Administrative
Tribunal and others, decided by Division Bench of Madras High Court
on 15 September 2007 in Writ Petition No. 15732 of 2017;
ii. Prakash Tulshiram Chaudhari Versus Versus State of
Maharashtra and others, decided by the Division Bench by order
dated 24 June 2021, in Writ Petition No. 6396 of 2020;
iii. Director (Admn. and HR) KPTCL and others Versus C.P.
Mundinamani and others, AIRONLINE 2023 SC 275.
7. Out of the above authorities, it is suffice to refer to
42WP7258.2023
paragraph no. 18 in case of Director KPTCL which is as follows :
"18. Now, so far as the submission on behalf of the
appellants that as the increment has accrued on the
next day on which it is earned and therefore, even in
a case where an employee has earned the increment
one day prior to his retirement but he is not in
service the day on which the increment is accrued is
concerned, while considering the aforesaid issue,
the object and purpose of grant of annual increment
is required to be considered. A government servant
is granted the annual increment on the basis of his
good conduct while rendering one year service.
Increments are given annually to officers with good
conduct unless such increments are withheld as a
measure of punishment or linked with efficiency.
Therefore, the increment is earned for rendering
service with good conduct in a year/specified
period. Therefore, the moment a government
servant has rendered service for a specified period
with good conduct, in a time scale, he is entitled to
the annual increment and it can be said that he has
earned the annual increment for rendering the
specified period of service with good conduct.
Therefore, as such, he is entitled to the benefit of
the annual increment on the eventuality of having
served for a specified period (one year) with good
conduct efficiently. Merely because, the government
servant has retired on the very next day, how can he
42WP7258.2023
be denied the annual increment which he has earned
and/or is entitled to for rendering the service with
good conduct and efficiently in the preceding one
year. In the case of Gopal Singh (supra) in
paragraphs 20, 23 and 24, the Delhi High Court has
observed and held as under : -
(para 20)
"Payment of salary and increment to a central
government servant is regulated by the provisions of
F.R., CSR and Central Civil Services (Pension)
Rules. Pay defined in F.R. 9(21) means the amount
drawn monthly by a central government servant and
includes the increment. A plain composite reading
of applicable provisions leaves no ambiguity that
annual increment is given to a government servant
to enable him to discharge duties of the post and
that pay and allowances are also attached to the
post. Article 43 of the CSR defines progressive
appointment to mean an appointment wherein the
pay is progressive, subject to good behaviour of an
officer. It connotes that pay rises, by periodical
increments from a minimum to a maximum. The
increment in case of progressive appointment is
specified in Article 151 of the CSR to mean that
increment accrues from the date following that on
which it is earned. The scheme, taken cumulatively,
clearly suggests that appointment of a central
government servant is progressive appointment and
42WP7258.2023
periodical increment in pay from a minimum to
maximum is part of the pay structure. Article 151
of CSR contemplates that increment accrues from
the day following which it is earned. This increment
is not a matter of course but is dependent upon good
conduct of the central government servant. It is,
therefore, apparent that central government
employee earns increment on the basis of his good
conduct for specified period i.e. a year in case of
annual increment. Increment in pay is thus an
integral part of progressive appointment and accrues
from the day following which it is earned."
(para 23)
"Annual increment though is attached to the post
and becomes payable on a day following which it is
earned but the day on which increment accrues or
becomes payable is not conclusive or determinative.
In the salutatory scheme governing progressive
appointment increment becomes due for the
services rendered over a year by the government
servant subject to his good behaviour. The pay of a
central government servant rises, by periodical
increments, from a minimum to the maximum in the
prescribed scale. The entitlement to receive
increment therefore crystallises when the
government servant completes requisite length of
service with good conduct and becomes payable on
the succeeding day."
42WP7258.2023
(para 24)
"In isolation of the purpose it serves the fixation of
day succeeding the date of entitlement has no
intelligible differentia nor any object is to be
achieved by it. The central government servant
retiring on 30th June has already completed a year of
service and the increment has been earned provided
his conduct was good. It would thus be wholly
arbitrary if the increment earned by the central
government employee on the basis of his good
conduct for a year is denied only on the ground that
he was not in employment on the succeeding day
when increment became payable."
"In the case of a government servant retiring on 30 th
of June the next day on which increment falls
due/becomes payable looses significance and must
give way to the right of the government servant to
receive increment due to satisfactory services of a
year so that the scheme is not construed in a manner
that if offends the spirit of reasonableness enshrined
in Article 14 of the Constitution of India. The
scheme for payment of increment would have to be
read as whole and one part of Article 151 of CSR
cannot be read in isolation so as to frustrate the
other part particularly when the other part creates
right in the central government servant to receive
increment. This would ensure that scheme of
progressive appointment remains intact and the
42WP7258.2023
rights earned by a government servant remains
protected and are not denied due to a fortuitous
circumstance."
8. In the present case also, there is no dispute that the
petitioner earned the increment by rendering the service with good
conduct during the preceding year of her superannuation. She is
entitled to benefit of the increment. The petition, therefore, deserves
to be allowed.
9. We, therefore, dispose of this petition as follows :
i. Writ Petition is allowed partly.
ii. The respondent nos. 1 to 4 shall confer
notional annual increment to the petitioner.
iii. The petitioner shall be entitled to receive
consequential benefits of revision of pension and its
arrears.
( SHAILESH P. BRAHME, J. ) ( MANGESH S. PATIL, J. )
SPChauhan
