The Punjab and Haryana High Court has directed Haryana to grant enhanced remuneration to District Consultants of the Water and Sanitation Support Organisation (WSSO) on a par with District Programme Managers under the Haryana State Swachh Bharat Mission Society (HSSBMS). The Bench made it clear that the enhanced remuneration was required to be granted with effect from December 1, 2016, along with consequential arrears.
Justice Sandeep Moudgil passed the order while allowing a petition filed by Deepak Kumar and other WSSO District Consultants. During the hearing, the petitioners confined their claim to enhancement of pay from December 1, 2016, on a par with District Programme Managers under HSSBMS, along with arrears.
Justice Moudgil asserted a perusal of the record showed that the issue of enhancing the remuneration of WSSO employees on a par with HSSBMS staff was considered by the competent authority in its meeting held on August 13, 2018, and the proposal in principle stood approved.
The Bench asserted the matter was again considered in the meeting dated February 3, 2021, wherein it was specifically noticed that such parity stood approved already. The issue was yet again deliberated upon in the meeting dated April 12, 2022. It ultimately culminated into Finance Department concurrence dated August 18, 2022, followed by office order dated September 7, 2022, granting the benefit. “The chronology leaves little room for doubt that the respondents themselves had accepted the claim of parity much before issuance of the order dated September 7, 2022,” the Bench observed.
Justice Moudgil added the stand now sought to be projected by the respondents that the duties and responsibilities of the petitioners were materially different from those of District Programme Managers under HSSBMS did not appear to be consistent with their own official record.
“Had the posts been incomparable in nature, there was no occasion for the competent authorities to repeatedly approve and reiterate the proposal for grant of remuneration at par with HSSBMS staff,” the Bench observed.
The court held that once parity had ultimately been granted by the employer itself, the burden shifted to the respondents to justify the selection of a later date. “No such justification is forthcoming,” the Bench observed.
The High Court further noted that the delay appeared to be the result of financial concurrence and administrative processing at different levels. “The State cannot take advantage of its own inaction and thereafter deny consequential benefits for the interregnum. The petitioners cannot be deprived of monetary benefits merely because the respondents took considerable time in implementing a decision already accepted in principle.”
Holding that the petitioners’ entitlement had been recognised much earlier and that the September 2022 order merely implemented an already accepted decision, the court ruled that the respondents were not justified in restricting the benefit of enhanced remuneration to August/December 2022.
Allowing the petition, Justice Moudgil set aside the June 14, 2021, communication to the extent it denied the claim and directed the respondents to re-fix the petitioners’ remuneration on a par with District Programme Managers under HSSBMS with effect from December 1, 2016. The court also ordered release of consequential arrears within three months, failing which the amount would carry interest at the rate of six per cent per annum from the date it became due till actual payment.
