P T KANERIYA Vs. STATE OF GUJARAT
LAWS(GJH)-2013-4-275
HIGH COURT OF GUJARAT
Decided on April 12,2013

P T Kaneriya Appellant
VERSUS
STATE OF GUJARAT Respondents




JUDGEMENT

C.L.SONI - (1.)THE petitioners have filed this petition under Article 226/227 of the Constitution of India seeking direction against the respondents to fix their salaries as Wireless Operators in the pay scale of Rs.350-560 under the Old Rules of 1975 and in the pay scale of Rs.1200-2040 under the new Rules of 1987 and to pay the arrears to all the petitioners with interest and also to award all other consequential benefits with further direction to the respondents to take only 8 hours work from them and to grant weekly off as well as benefits of national and other public holidays and to pay the petitioners for the additional work which they have taken from the petitioners on weekly holidays, national and other public holidays and also for a period more than eight hours a day.
(2.)THE case of the petitioners is that the respondents wanted to fill up the post of Wireless Operators and for the said purpose, names from the Employment Exchange as well as from the Social Welfare Board were called for. From the names called for, the respondents issued call letters for interview to the candidates including the petitioners. During the interview, the candidates who were found suitable were issued appointment orders. One of such appointment order in respect of petitioner No.2 dated 28.2.1984 is placed on record wherein it is specifically stated that the petitioner No.2 has been appointed as wireless operator with other terms and conditions stated in the order. Salary of wireless operator is also mentioned and it is further provided that the candidate would not be entitled to any other benefits. It is the case of the petitioners that the petitioner No.2 and all other petitioners have been performing their duties as wireless operators after they were appointed for the said post. It is the further case in the petition that the minimum qualification for the post of wireless operator is SSC Pass. All the petitioners have passed SSC Examination and are eligible and qualified for the post of wireless operator. Many of the petitioners are even graduate and some of them are double graduate as well as post graduate. It is further case of the petitioners that though all the petitioners are appointed to the post of wireless operators and though they are working as wireless operators, they have not been paid the salary as wireless operators by the respondents. It is further averred that the respondent State Government has issued Rules known as Gujarat Civil Services (Revision of Pay) Rules, 1975 wherein at page 37, serial no. 42, under the head of "Forest Department", pay scale of wireless operators have been mentioned as Rs.350-560 and under the new Gujarat Civil Service (Revision of Pay) Rules, 1987, pay scale of wireless operators came to be revised from 350-560 to Rs.1200-2040. It is the further case of the petitioners that they are entitled to the pay scale of Rs.350-560 which has been revised to Rs.1200-2040 from the date of coming into force of the said Rules of 1987. However, the respondent authorities have not paid the pay scale to the petitioners and the petitioners have been paid salary in the pay scale of Rs.210- 270, revised to Rs.800-1150 under the Rules of 1987. Such an action of the respondents of paying the lower pay scale is arbitrary, capricious, unreasonable and violative of the fundamental rights of the petitioners guaranteed under Article 14, 19 and 21 of the Constitution of India.
The petitioners have made further grievance that the petitioners are not given other usual benefits which are given to the other confirmed employees such as Forest Guard. The petitioners have pointed out that in other departments of the State of Gujarat, Wireless operators are getting the pay scale of Rs.350-560 under the old Rules of 1975 which are revised to Rs.1200-2040 under the Rules of 1987 and the petitioners are therefore entitled to the pay scales similar to the wireless operators in the other departments of the State of Gujarat as the petitioners are performing similar functions and discharging similar duties.

(3.)THE petition is opposed by respondents by filing reply dated 10th March, 2000 inter-alia stating that for effective and speedy communication, wireless network was proposed to be installed in Gir area and for its maintenance, personnel were required for operating. This Wireless Radio telephone does not require any special or technical skill as it involves receiving and relaying messages in common language which is subject to a limited field. It is further stated that this job can be done by any ordinary staff and, therefore, looking to the nature of the job and its simplicity,it was thought that existing cadre of forest Guards will suffice for this purpose and there was no need for raising a separate cadre of personnel with different pay scale for maintaining Wireless Radio Telephones. Therefore, while notifying the post, no special recruitment rules, no separate pay scale was mentioned for this post because recruitment of Wireless operators was to be done in the cadre of Forest Guards for which recruitment rules and pay scale were already existing. It is further averred that as per the Resolution of the Government of Gujarat, Agriculture and Forest Department dated 31.12.1983, 30 posts of wireless operators in the pay scale of Rs.210-4.250-270 were sanctioned and the same were to be filled up before 28.2.1984. It is further stated by the deponent that the minimum qualifications laid down were the same as are in the case of Forest Guards. The pay scale of Rs.210-4-250-5-270 was specifically mentioned at Sr. No.5 which is the pay scale of Forest Guard. Educational qualification, physical standard of chest and height, walking test were the internal part of eligibility. The nature of job of Wireless Operator does not require the eligibility of physical standard of walking test. That the same was included which shows that it was basically for recruitment in the cadre of Forest Guards designated as Wireless Operators with future possibility of internal change from field to wireless and vice versa. It is further stated that the nature of duty simply involves relaying and receiving the messages in simple conversational languages. While denying the averments made in para 6 of the petition, the deponent has stated that the minimum qualification is passing of Gujarati Standard VIII. With reference to para 7 of the petition, the deponent has stated that the petitioners have been appointed to the post of wireless operators (Guards) in the pay scale of Rs.210-4-250-5-270 shown at Sr. NO. 67 of GCS (ROP) Rules, 1975. This pay scale is shown in their appointment orders, hence, their demand of higher pay scale of Rs.330-560 is not tenable. Moreover, the post of wireless operators in the forest Department is neither sanctioned by Government in separate pay scale nor it is shown in the GCS Pay Rules (ROP) 1987. All the petitioners have given their option to accept the revised pay scale of Rs.825-1200 against the old pay scale of Forest Guard of Rs.210-270 and local Audit Fund Authorities have also verified their pay fixation and admitted the same. It is stated that the Pay Verification Party had strongly objected to the use of designation other than that of forest guard because in their list, there was no such category. Accordingly, the cadre of wireless operators was identified as the cadre of forest guards having the same pay scale. Hence the pay verification of these forest guards (Wireless) has been done in the cadre and pay scale of Forest Guards proving that wireless operators are recognized and identified in the cadre of forest guards only and the same has been accepted by all the forest guards (Wireless Operators). It is further stated in the reply that the cadre of wireless operator is recognized by the State Government in the separate cadre of technical nature for which separate Recruitment Rules have been framed like Recruitment Rules of the Police Department from which it can be seen that there is vast difference in the educational qualification and technical qualification for eligibility for this cadre. Nature of work, communication in code language form part of specialized professional working whereas in the forest department, wireless sets working in ordinary task involving communication of messages in simple language for which no training of course is imparted. It is stated that the job of forest wireless operators is quantitatively different from the type of job performed by the State cadre of Wireless Operators. It is further stated that there is no separate cadre of wireless operator, their names are being included in the gradation of list of forest guards and they will be entitled for promotion as forester.


Click here to view full judgement.
Copyright © Regent Computronics Pvt.Ltd.