High Court
Case Details
WP(C) 1345/2006 BEFORE HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE UJJAL BHUYAN J U D G M E N T AND O R D E R (ORAL) Question for consideration in this writ petition is the entitlement of t he petitioner to Special Duty Allowance (SDA), which is provided to the employee s of National Small Industries Corporation Limited like the Central Government c ivilian employees hailing from outside the North-Eastern Region on their posting to the North-Eastern Region. 2. Case of the petitioner is that he was appointed as Deputy Manage r of National Small Industries Corporation Limited (NSIC), a Government of India enterprise, and he joined in that post at Guwahati on 29.09.1986. Thereafter, h e was transferred to Howrah in the State of West Bengal on 06.11.1989. Petitione r was again transferred from Howrah to Guwahati in the same capacity in June, 19 91, whereafter he joined at Guwahati on 14.06.1991 and served till 05.05.2003 wh en he was transferred to Delhi. However, instead of proceeding to Delhi in terms of the transfer order, petitioner took voluntary retirement from service. 3. Petitioner hails from the North-Eastern Region and belongs to Gu wahati in the State of Assam. When he joined service in the NSIC, such service h ad all India transfer liability. 4. Government of India in the Finance Department had introduced SDA vide Office Memorandum (OM) dated 14.12.1983. This allowance was made available to the Central Government civilian employees having all India transfer liabilit y at the rate of 25% of the basic pay while posted in the North-Eastern Region, subject to certain conditions.
Decision
5. Board of Directors of NSIC in its meeting held on 31.08.1992 dec ided that those employees of NSIC not belonging to the North-Eastern Region, on their posting to the said Region, would be eligible to SDA w.e.f. 01.09.1992 at the rates applicable to the Central Government employees. It was further decided that non-local employees of NSIC posted in the North-Eastern Region be paid SDA @ 12.‰% of basic pay subject to a ceiling of Rs. 1,000/- per month. This was ci rculated amongst the employees of NSIC vide circular dated 12.11.1992 issued by the General Manager. Subsequently, it was clarified by the Cabinet Secretariat, Government of India (Annexure-3 to the writ petition) that an employee hailing f rom the North-Eastern Region posted to the North-Eastern Region initially but su bsequently transferred out of the North-Eastern Region but re-posted to the Nort h-Eastern Region after serving some time in non-North-Eastern Region, would be e ntitled to SDA. Respondents have filed a common affidavit. Stand taken in the af 6. fidavit is that as per the decision of the Board of Directors of NSIC, benefit o f SDA would be available only to those employees hailing from outside the North- Eastern Region and posted to the North-Eastern Region w.e.f. 01.09.1992. Since w rit petition hails from the North-Eastern Region, he is not entitled to the bene fit of SDA. 7. Heard Mr. M. Bhuyan, learned counsel for the petitioner and Mr. N. C. Das, learned Senior Counsel assisted by Ms. M. Devi, learned counsel for t he respondents. 8. Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that after the clarif ication given by the Cabinet Secretariat, Government of India there can be no tw o opinion that an employee like the petitioner hailing from the North-Eastern Re gion, posted to the North-Eastern Region initially but subsequently transferred out of the North-Eastern Region and again re-posted to the North-Eastern Region after serving for some time outside the North-Eastern Region would be entitled t o the benefit of SDA. He also places reliance on two decisions of this Court in the case of Basant Kumar and Ors. Vs. Union of India and Ors. reported in 2001 ( 1) GLT 636 and on a recent Division Bench judgment of this Court in WP(C) No. 55 77/2012 (H. Baruah Vs. Union of India and Ors.) delivered on 14.05.2013. On the other hand, Mr. Das, learned Senior Counsel for the respo 9. ndents, has referred to the circular dated 12.11.1992 of the NSIC to contend tha t employees of NSIC hailing from the North-Eastern Region and posted in the Regi on would not be entitled to receive SDA. Benefit of SDA is extended only as an i ncentive to employees of other parts of the country to serve in the North-Easter n Region. 10. Submissions made have been considered. In so far Central Government employees hailing from the North-Ea 11. stern Region and re-posted to the North-Eastern Region after serving outside the Region is concerned, it is already seen from the clarification issued by the Ca binet Secretariat, Government of India that such category of employees would als o be entitled to the benefit of SDA. In Basant Kumar (supra), a Single Bench of this Court held that the benefit of SDA would be available to the petitioners of that case from the date when they joined their respective assignments in the No rth-Eastern Region. In the recent case of H. Baruah (supra), this Court noted th at the benefit of SDA has also been extended to the All India Services officers. In case of All India Services officers, serving in the North-Eastern Region, th ey are getting the benefit of SDA irrespective of the fact as to whether they ha il from outside the North-Eastern Region or they hail from the North-Eastern Reg ion. The Division Bench also referred to the Office Memorandum dated 29.08.2008 of the Central Government by which benefit of SDA has been provided to all Centr al Government employees having all India transfer liability posted from outside the North-Eastern Region or from another area of North-Eastern Region. In that c ase, a retired Judge of this Court had made the grievance that he was deprived o f SDA amongst other benefits. This Court after referring to various provisions g overning SDA, held that there is absolutely no manner of doubt that the petition er was entitled to SDA from the date of his appointment as a Judge of the Gauhat i High Court as he had to hold Court in different Benches of this Court througho ut the North-Eastern Region. In the present case, admittedly petitioner on his r e-posting, served at Gauhati for the period from 14.06.1991 till 05.05.2003. Thus having regard to the discussions made above, I am of the co 12. nsidered opinion that the petitioner would be entitled to the benefit of SDA dur ing the period of his service at Guwahati on his re-posting. As per the circular of NSIC dated 12.11.1992, the benefit of SDA was provided w.e.f. 01.09.1992. 13. Accordingly, respondents are directed to pay SDA to the petition er at the rate applicable to the employees of NSIC for the period from 01.09.199 2 till 05.05.2003. The above exercise shall be carried out within a period of 3 (three) months from the date of receipt of certified copy of this order. 14. Writ petition is accordingly allowed.