(Per : HONOURABLE THE CHIEF JUSTICE MR.BHASKAR BHATTACHARYA) These are applications under Article 227 of the Constitution of India at the instance of the applicants who were appointed in the service of the respondent-Corporation as Junior Legal Assistant and are directed against an Award dated November 5, 2007, passed by the Industrial Tribunal, Ahmedabad ["the Tribunal" for short] in Reference [IT] No. 219 of 2005.
By the Award impugned, the Tribunal allowed the Reference and directed the respondent-Corporation to grant the pay-scale of Rs. 6500-10500 to the present petitioners who were working as Junior Legal Assistant w.e.f. October 29, 2005.
Being dissatisfied, the Junior Legal Assistants, six in number, have come up with the present applications under Article 227 of the Constitution of India.
It appears that the respondent-Corporation has not challenged the said oder and the only grievance of the petitioners in these applications is that the Tribunal should have granted the pay-scale not from October 29, 2005, but from the date of respective appointments of the petitioners.
Ms.
Dhara M. Shah, the learned advocate appearing on behalf of the petitioners, draws our attention to the fact that by virtue of the Award earlier granted by Arbitrator Mr. G.S. Barot, the Welfare Labour Officers were given the same pay-scale from the date of their respective appointments with all arrears and against such Award, the respondent-Corporation moved this Court by preferring Special Civil Application Nos. 9951 to 9952 of 1993, but such Special Civil Applications were dismissed.
We find that the Tribunal below, in the Award impugned, has specifically recorded that the Corporation has not made out any case that it has financial inability to grant pay-scale to the petitioners.
It appears that in the set-up of the respondent-Corporation, the duties and responsibilities of Labour Welfare Officer and that of Junior Legal Assistant are the same and previously also they carried identical pay-scale.
Such being the position, in our opinion, Ms. Shah is quite justified in contending that her clients, the petitioners, are also entitled to get the benefit of the enhanced pay-scale of Rs.6500-10500 from the respective dates of appointment which have been given to the Labour Welfare Officers.
The learned advocate appearing on behalf of the respondent-Corporation did not dispute the fact that the Labour Welfare Officers got the benefit of the enhanced pay-scale from their respective dates of appointment and that the Special Civil Applications filed by the respondent against such Award ended in dismissal.
Such being the position, we modify the Award impugned only to the extent that the benefit of the enhanced pay-scale of Rs.6500-10500 will be available to the writ-petitioners not from October 29, 2005 as awarded by the Tribunal below, but from their respective dates of appointment. The Award impugned is modified to the extent indicated above.
The Special Civil Applications are, thus, allowed to the above extent. Rule is made absolute accordingly to the extent indicated above. No costs.
[BHASKAR BHATTACHARYA, C.J.] [J.B.PARDIWALA, J.] pirzada/-