Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, May 21: High Court today said that while fixing pay scales of various posts, the Government and its instrumentalities cannot indulge in hostile discrimination towards individual or class of persons and directed for placing the University employee in higher pay scale.
The petitioner-Fayaz Ahmad Bhat working as Xerox operator in Kashmir University was seeking pay scale on his post as is given to other departments for such post.
Justice Sanjeev Kumar directed the University to place the petitioner in the pay scale next higher to the pay scale held by him and granted to the Assistant Xerox Operators pursuant to the decision of the high-powered committee dated 20.10.2018.
“This higher pay scale shall be available to the petitioner right from the day he was initially appointed as Xerox Operator. He shall be entitled to the arrears of the salary on account of such placement in the higher pay scale from the date the Assistant Xerox Operators were given the higher pay scale equivalent to the post of Xerox Operator”, Justice Kumar directed.
He added that the courts do not enter in the arena of fixation of pay scales for the various posts in the Government or semi-Government organisations, but it is equally true that while fixing the pay scales for various posts, the state or its instrumentalities cannot indulge in hostile discrimination towards an individual or class of persons.
As is apparent from the record, the University all along maintained the superiority of the post of the Xerox Operator held by the petitioner over the post of the Assistant Xerox Operator. Both the categories were claiming for their placement in the grade which was being paid to their counterparts working in other departments.
The grievance of the Assistant Xerox Operators was redressed by placing them in the higher pay scale, but while doing so the respondent university created grave pay anomaly, in that, the University prescribed the same pay scale for the post of the Xerox Operator and the Assistant Xerox Operator and the superiority which was maintained all along was obliterated.
“The petitioner who was already holding the pay scale which was given to the Assistant Xerox Operator in terms of the decision of the high powered committee should have been given upward movement by placing him in the next available higher scale. By not doing so, the respondents have not only acted arbitrarily but have treated the petitioner with hostile discrimination”, the Court said.
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