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High court quashes Punjab notification on fixed stipend to staff on probation
The Punjab and Haryana high court (HC) bench of justice MSR Rao and justice Sukhvinder Kaur has also directed the government to grant regular pay scale, along with all other emoluments, allowances, etc., from the date of their initial appointment. The judgment will be applicable in the case of only those who were before the court.
The Punjab and Haryana high court (HC) has quashed the December 2015 notification of Punjab government fixing monthly emoluments to its employees during the probation period without grade pay, annual increment or other allowance.
The HC bench of justice MSR Rao and justice Sukhvinder Kaur has also directed the government to grant regular pay scale, along with all other emoluments, allowances, etc., from the date of their initial appointment. The judgment will be applicable in the case of only those who were before the court. A three-month deadline has been set for paying the arrears. The court disposed of 100 odd petitions filed by employees in 2017. Thousands of employees would be affected with this judgment. In teachers’ category alone, 50,000 employees would be affected, said Vikas Chatrath, one of the lawyers.
The HC has directed the government to count the period spent on probation as regular services for determining the total length of service under the service rules. The court also quashed conditions included in the appointment letters issued to petitioners on the basis of the notifications.
The December 25, 2015, notification, was applicable to all employees – except members of the Punjab Civil Service (judicial branch), specialist doctors etc.
The employees had argued that a similar notification issued on January 2015 has been quashed by HC as it found it violative of Article 14 of Constitution of India. Hence, this one also be quashed.
The government had argued that petitions against the HC order in the January 2015 notification case are pending before the Supreme Court. Hence, HC should refrain from pronouncing judgment on the issue.
The court, however, did not agree with the contention of the state and observed that there was no material change in the fresh notification and quashed the same. “The state cannot dictate that employees who were regularly selected and appointed on substantive posts should get wages less than living wages which are provided by way of allowances, and that it is unjust, unfair and unreasonable and violative of Article 14 of the Constitution of India; that it amounts to practice of forced labour; and where the state has offered unfair terms of employment, and the candidate accepts it taking up the job without demur, he cannot be held to have accepted the employment on such terms, which are unfair and unconstitutional,” the court observed in 36-page judgment. The government had even argued that fresh notification was issued on the ground of certain financial difficulties. However, the court observed that such a ground was rejected in earlier proceedings as well.
The court, however, did not touch another issue of September 5, 2016, notification, observing that it would remain open for consideration in an appropriate case. In this notification, the government had increased the probation period from two to three years.
