TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2020 (1) TMI 1103
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....ji, AOR, Mr. Nikhil Swami, AOR, Mr. A. Lakshminarayanan, AOR, Mr. Gautam Narayan, AOR JUDGMENT MOHAN M. SHANTANAGOUDAR, J. CIVIL APPEALS @ SLP (CIVIL) NOS. 5395-5399 OF 2016; CIVIL APPEALS @ SLP (CIVIL) NOS. 5605-5613 OF 2016; CIVIL APPEALS @ SLP (CIVIL) NOS. 5391-5393 OF 2016, AND CIVIL APPEALS @ SLP (CIVIL) NOS. 5367-5375 OF 2016 Leave granted. 2. These appeals have been filed against the common final judgment and order dated 08.07.2015 passed by the High Court of Judicature at Madras allowing writ appeals filed by the Respondents herein, being state authorities, and dismissing writ petitions filed by the Appellants herein, being drivers in various departments of the Government of Tamil Nadu, with respect to the Selection Grade and Special Grade scales of pay applicable to them. 3. The Appellants, in a nutshell, are claiming the grant of Selection Grade and Special Grade scales of pay in the bracket of Rs. 5000-8000 and Rs. 5500-9000 respectively in terms of G.O. Ms. No. 162, Finance (Pay Cell) Department dated 13.04.1998 (for short "G.O. Ms. No. 162"), which has been granted to around 3000 similarly placed employees. The Appellants place reliance on various dec....
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....having SLP (C) No. 35969/2009 as the lead matter, stated as follows: "UPON hearing the counsel the Court made the following ORDER Dismissed." 7. It is evident that all the above orders were non-speaking orders, inasmuch as they were confined to a mere refusal to grant special leave to appeal to the petitioners therein. At this juncture, it is useful to recall that it is well-settled that the dismissal of an SLP against an order or judgment of a lower forum is not an affirmation of the same. If such an order of this Court is non-speaking, it does not constitute a declaration of law under Article 141 of the Constitution, or attract the doctrine of merger. The following discussion on this proposition in Kunhayammed v. State of Kerala, (2000) 6 SCC 359, is relevant in this regard: "(i) Where an appeal or revision is provided against an order passed by a court, tribunal or any other authority before superior forum and such superior forum modifies, reverses or affirms the decision put in issue before it, the decision by the subordinate forum merges in the decision by the superior forum and it is the latter which subsists, remains operative and is capable ....
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....y order binding as res judicata in subsequent proceedings between the parties. (vi) Once leave to appeal has been granted and appellate jurisdiction of the Supreme Court has been invoked the order passed in appeal would attract the doctrine of merger; the order may be of reversal, modification or merely affirmation. (vii) On an appeal having been preferred or a petition seeking leave to appeal having been converted into an appeal before the Supreme Court the jurisdiction of the High Court to entertain a review petition is lost thereafter as provided by sub-rule (1) of Order 47 Rule 1 CPC." (emphasis added) This view has also been adopted in a plethora of decisions of this Court, including the recent decision in Khoday Distilleries v. Sri Mahadeshwara Sahakara Sakkare Karkhane Ltd., (2019) 4 SCC 376. 8. Applying these observations to the present case, it is clear that there has been no pronouncement by this Court constituting the law of the land as to the interpretation of G.O. Ms. No. 162. In such a situation, it is open for us to proceed to decide the instant appeals uninfluenced by the prior orders of this Court dismissing SLPs against the grant of reli....
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....150-8300 XV 1400-40-1600-50-2300-60-2600 5000-150-8000 XVI 1350-30-1440-40-1800-50-2200 4500-125-7000 XVII 1320-30-1560-40-2040 4300-100-6000 XVIII 1200-30-1560-40-2040 4000-100-6000 XIX 1100-25-1150-30-1660 3625-85-4900 XX 975-25-1150-30-1660 3200-85-4900 XXI 950-20-1150-25-1500 3050-75-3950-80-4590 XXII 825-15-900-20-1200 2750-70-3800-75-4400 XXIII 800-15-1010-20-1150 2650-65-3300-70-4000 XXIV 775-12-835-15-1030 2610-60-3150-65-3540 XXV 750-12-870-15-945 2550-55-2660-60-3200 (emphasis added) 11. Relying on this, the Respondents submit that the drivers are entitled to a revised Ordinary Grade pay scale of Rs. 3200- 4900 only. As regards the Selection Grade and Special Grade pay scales applicable, the Respondents claim that the Appellants are entitled to pay scales of Rs. 4000-6000 and Rs. 4300-6000 respectively as per Serial No. 6 of Schedule II, which is corresponding to Entry No. XX of Schedule I. On the other hand, the Appellants claim that they are entitled to the revised Selection Grade and Special Grade pay scales of Rs. 5000-8000 and Rs. 5500-9000 respectively as per Ser....
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....5-1 dated 25.04.2006. This was challenged by the drivers' association before the High Court in W.P. No. 34800 of 2006, which was allowed on the ground that the said proceedings did not refer to G.O. Ms. No. 162. The association was directed to make a fresh representation before the Finance Department, to be decided in accordance with G.O. Ms. No. 162. 14. Such representation, however, was also rejected by the Finance Department vide letter No. 63685/CMPC/2006-1, dated 01.10.2007, which states as follows: "3. Therefore, the Drivers are entitled for the Selection Grade / Special Grade scales of pay as ordered in Schedule-II of G.O. Ms. No. 162, Finance (PC) Department, dated 13-4-98, based on the ordinary grade scale of pay granted to the posts of Drivers. As such all categories on par with Drivers in the Ordinary Grade of Rs. 3200-4900 are entitled for the Selection Grade of Rs. 4000-6000 and Special Grade of Rs. 4300-6000 respectively. The above Government Order has been issued based on the recommendations of the Official Committee, 1998 and the Drivers are not denied the benefits ordered in the Government Order cited. Hence, your request has no merit to consider as req....
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....al Grade pay scales of Rs. 5000-8000 and Rs. 5500-9000 respectively. 18.1 The Single Judge in W.P. No. 4288/2008 (supra) and the Division Bench in W.A. Nos. 383-391/2009 both set aside the order dated 01.10.2007 based on the fact that the claimed higher pay scales had already been granted and were still being received by certain other drivers in several government departments, as per G.O. Ms. No. 162. Further, and more importantly, it was held that the letter dated 31.12.1998 wherein such higher pay scale fixations were deemed to be erroneous, would not have the effect of reducing the entitlement of drivers, as such a letter could not act as a substitute for modification of the G.O. itself. Thus, even though the Court did not give any express direction to grant the higher pay scales as per Serial No. 8 of Schedule II of the 1998 Rules, we find that the same was implicit in the Court's directions for fixing the pay scales in terms of G.O. Ms. No. 162. In other words, it cannot be said that the High Court in W.A. Nos. 383- 391/2009 did not affirm the drivers' claim that they were entitled to the higher Selection and Special Grade pay scales of Rs. 5000-8000 and Rs. 5500-9000 respe....
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....20.1 As the High Court has also noted in the impugned judgment, the pay scales of the Appellants can be traced back to G.O. Ms. No. 666, Finance dated 27.06.1989, by which the State Government issued the Tamil Nadu Revised Scales of Pay Rules, 1989, implementing the recommendations of the Vth Tamil Nadu Pay Commission. Under these rules, the original and revised pay scales of 30 common categories of posts were specified. The scale of pay for drivers was mentioned at Serial No. 11 in the first part of the Schedule to these rules, having been revised from Rs. 610-1075 to Rs. 950-1500. 20.2 The next revision came through G.O. Ms. No. 818, Finance, dated 09.09.1989, whereby drivers' pay scale was increased to Rs. 975-1660. Later, under G.O. Ms. No. 304, Finance dated 28.03.1990, Special Grade and Selection Grade scales of pay were introduced for persons who had completed 10 years and 20 years of service respectively. For the post of drivers carrying the Ordinary Grade pay scale of Rs. 975-1660, the Selection and Special Grade brackets were set as Rs. 1200- 2040 and Rs. 1320-2040 respectively. 20.3 Finally, when the 1998 Rules were introduced through G.O. Ms. No. 162, the post-wis....
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....ted in an earlier case, it cannot be perpetuated. Equality is a trite, which cannot be claimed in illegality and therefore, cannot be enforced by a citizen or court in a negative manner. If an illegality and irregularity has been committed in favour of an individual or a group of individuals or a wrong order has been passed by a judicial forum, others cannot invoke the jurisdiction of the higher or superior court for repeating or multiplying the same irregularity or illegality or for passing a similarly wrong order. A wrong order/decision in favour of any particular party does not entitle any other party to claim benefits on the basis of the wrong decision. Even otherwise, Article 14 cannot be stretched too far for otherwise it would make functioning of administration impossible. (Vide Chandigarh Admn. v. Jagjit Singh [(1995) 1 SCC 745 : AIR 1995 SC 705] , Anand Buttons Ltd. v. State of Haryana [(2005) 9 SCC 164 : AIR 2005 SC 565] , K.K. Bhalla v. State of M.P. [(2006) 3 SCC 581 : AIR 2006 SC 898] and Fuljit Kaur v. State of Punjab [(2010) 11 SCC 455 : AIR 2010 SC 1937].)" This proposition was also recently affirmed by a 3-Judge Bench of this Court in State of Odisha v.....