Dr. P.N. Shukla & Ors. vs Union Of India & Ors.
2011 Latest Caselaw 3368 Del

*        IN THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI AT NEW DELHI

+                  Writ Petition (Civil) No. 3791/2011

Dr. P.N. Shukla & Ors.                    ....Petitioners
                  Through       Mr. Somesh Chandra Jha, Advocate.

                   VERSUS

Union of India & Ors.                ....Respondents
                 Through Mr.Saqib, Advocate for respondent 1.
                         Mr. Amitesh Kumar for respondent 2.

CORAM:
HON'BLE THE CHIEF JUSTICE
HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE SANJIV KHANNA

                                ORDER

% 15.07.2011

Dr. P.N. Shukla and five others have filed the present writ petition

assailing orders dated 1st June, 2010 and 3rd August, 2010 passed by the

Central Administrative Tribunal, Principal Bench, New Delhi (Tribunal,

for short), dismissing their O.A. No. 1762/2010 and Review Application

No. 203/2010.

2. The petitioners herein are working as Assistant Scientific Officers

in the Commission for Scientific & Technical Terminology. The dispute

does not pertain to their posts or their pay-scale. The dispute also does

not pertain to the service conditions as applicable to them. The

grievance raised by the petitioners is that Dr. Bhim Sen Behere,

respondent No. 4 herein, Assistant Scientific Officer (Medicine) has

been wrongly given designation and declared as an ex-cadre post and

granted upgradation of pay-scale to Rs.8000-13500 (pre-revised)

whereas the pay-scale of the petitioners is Rs.7500-12000 (pre-revised).

3. In the impugned order dated 1st June, 2010, Tribunal has noticed

that this was a third round of litigation by the petitioners.

Representation given by the petitioners was rejected by the respondent

No. 2, Chairman, Commission for Scientific & Technical Terminology by

order dated 4th January, 2010. The said order has examined the

contentions of the petitioners in detail but rejected the same for

various reasons.

4. Assistant Scientific Officers (Research Assistants) are recruited on

the basis of single recruitment rules in different subjects. However,

essential qualifications prescribed in the recruitment rules are different

i.e. Diploma (for engineering), Master's degree in Hindi with Post-

graduate Diploma in Journalism (for Journalism) and Post Graduate

Diploma in Management (for Management) and Post-graduate Degree

(for other subjects). For the post of Assistant Scientific Officer

(Medicine), a degree is required. Each Assistant Scientific Officer is

required to perform duties in their respective fields.

5. 5th Pay Commission had observed that the post of Research

Assistant should be re-designated as Assistant Scientific Officer and

upgraded from pay-scale of 1640-2900 to 2000-3500, keeping in view

the nature of their work and the fact that their recruitment

qualification is a Post-graduate degree. As noticed above, the said

recommendation was factually incorrect as in some cases Post-graduate

degree is not prescribed. Respondent No. 4, Dr. Bhim Sen Behere is

holding a Degree of ISM&H. He applied for said scale and the same was

approved by the Department of Expenditure. None of the petitioners

hold the same degree. Further, the 6th Pay Commission had noted the

upgradation of pay-scale of respondent No. 4. Degree-holders of

ISM&H are enrolled as registered medical practitioners in the State or

Central Board. In the order dated 4th January, 2010, it has been held as

under:-

"14. The ground that Dr. Behera is not performing medical duties is not correct. The mater regarding the interpretation of 'medical practice' has been clarified by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Department of Ayush which is as under:-

As per Pharmacy Act and IMC Act, any work related to medical subject performed by a medical practitioner, whose essential qualification is Degree in medical science and registered with any State or Central Council shall be termed as medical practice. Since Dr. Behera is doing work on medical subject, he is covered under the term 'Medical practice' and is granted the scale thereof.

15. The ground that the Applicants are doing academic research in different fields including Assistant Scientific Officer (Medicine) and are performing same duties which are purely academic is not correct as the posts are not interchangeable. The Assistant Scientific Officer (Medicine) performs academic research in the field of Medicine and he is holding the post of Assistant Scientific Officer (Medicine) by virtue of his qualification.

16. The 6th CPC had invited representations from individuals and service associations and Dr. Bhimsen Behera had made a representation to the 6th CPC for the merger of the post of ASO (Medicine) with the CGHS cadre and change of designation. No wrongful depiction has been made to the Pay Commission as the Applicants have mentioned in the grounds. Though the upgradation of pay scale of Dr. Behera was made effective in December, 2006, the Applicants did not represent to the Pay Commission about their grievance with respect to Dr. Behera either individually or collectively.

17. The Administrative Ministry has never submitted that the functioning of Assistant Scientific Officer, Scientific Officer and Assistant Scientific Officer (Medicine) are same."

(emphasis supplied)

6. It was in view of the aforesaid reason that the Tribunal dismissed

the Original Petition by impugned order dated 1st June, 2010. We have

also examined the reasoning given in the order dated 4th January, 2010

and the findings recorded by the Tribunal. We are in agreement with

the said findings. Accordingly, we do not find any merit in the writ

petition and the same is dismissed.

(SANJIV KHANNA) JUDGE

( DIPAK MISRA ) CHIEF JUSTICE July 15, 2011 kkb