Jagannath Karmakar & Ors vs State Of West Bengal & Ors
2023 Latest Caselaw 4326 Cal

DL-19

19.07.2023

Court No.5                      WP.ST 213 of 2013
(AD)
                           Jagannath Karmakar & Ors.
                                       Vs.
                           State of West Bengal & Ors.

                   Mr. Goutam Misra
                   Mr. Krishna Roy Chowdhury
                   Mr. Vaskar Pal
                                                       ... for the petitioners.

Mr. Tapan Kumar Mukherjee, Ld. AGP Mr. Somnath Naskar ... for the State.

Petitioners are aggrieved by the order dated

January 24, 2011 passed by the West Bengal

Administrative Tribunal in OA-920 of 2003.

Petitioners are diploma holders. They were

appointed prior to January 1987 as workshop instructor.

Petitioners seek upgradation of their scale of pay.

Request for upgradation of their scale of pay was made

to different authorities. It received the consideration of

the 4th Pay Commission. 4th Pay Commission was of the

view that the petitioners were not entitled to upgraded

scale of pay as sought for by them. Petitioners

approached the Tribunal. Tribunal negated the claim.

Today, the learned Advocate appearing for the

petitioners draws the attention of the Court to a writing

dated November 8, 2005 issued by the Director of

Technical Education & Training, West Bengal proposing

upgradation of their scale of pay.

Learned Senior Advocate appearing for the State

submits that, the Director of Technical Education &

Training, West Bengal does not possess the requisite

financial authority to recommend upgradation of the

scale of pay. In any event, at best, it is proposal for

upgradation.

We considered the impugned order of the Tribunal.

The Tribunal elaborately discussed the contentions of

the petitioners. The Tribunal found that the grievances

of the petitioners received consideration at diverse level

at diverse points of time including by the 4th Pay

Commission and was negated.

The Tribunal noted that, complex matters relating

to pay fixation where duties and responsibilities of

different posts are required to be evaluated are best left

to the expert body. Tribunal, however, entered the

caveat, that, judicial review of pay fixation is permissible.

There is an order of the High Court passed in CR

No.3021(W) of 1985 directing payment of a higher scale

of pay on the principle of equal pay for equal work. We

perused the judgment and find that such order was

passed on the basis of the principle of non-traverse of

the allegations made in the writ petition, since the State

went unrepresented and did not file any affidavit

controverting the allegations made in the writ petition.

In such circumstances, it would be inappropriate to

apply the same ratio in the facts of the present case as

the factual scenario are different.

In such circumstances, we find no merit in the

present writ petition.

WP.ST 213 of 2013 is dismissed without any

order as to costs.

(Debangsu Basak, J.)

(Md. Shabbar Rashidi, J.)