Pay stepping for senior officers applies to remove cadre anomalies when a junior draws higher pay under the governing resolution.

A pay-stepping resolution may correct salary anomalies where a senior draws less pay than a junior in the same cadre or higher post, subject to the governing conditions. On the stated facts, both officers held identical posts, the petitioner was senior in the lower and higher cadres, and the junior continued to draw higher pay after promotion. The text treats denial of the same benefit as discriminatory where comparable relief had already been extended to other officers, and says the Tribunal misread both the resolution and the factual position. The proper effect was stepping up of pay from the date of entry into the cadre with consequential arrears.

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Issues: Whether the petitioner, a senior officer, was entitled to stepping up of pay at par with his junior who was drawing higher pay in the same cadre and whether the Tribunal erred in denying that relief.

Analysis: The pay-stepping resolution permitted correction of pay anomalies where a senior draws less pay than a junior in the higher post, subject to specified conditions. On the facts, the petitioner and the junior officer were in the same cadre, held identical posts, and the petitioner was senior in both the lower and higher cadres. The junior had drawn higher pay in the lower post and continued to draw higher pay after promotion. The Court also noticed that similar relief had been extended to other officers in comparable situations, and held that denial of the same benefit to the petitioner amounted to discrimination. The Tribunal had proceeded on an erroneous appreciation of the resolution and the factual matrix.

Conclusion: The petitioner was entitled to stepping up of pay with effect from the date he entered the cadre, together with consequential arrears, and the Tribunal's order was liable to be quashed.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a senior and junior belong to the same cadre and the junior draws higher pay, the senior's pay must be stepped up to remove the anomaly unless the governing conditions clearly bar such relief; discriminatory denial of that benefit is unsustainable.

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