Writ Petition No. 8329 of 2023 · Bombay High Court
Case Details
972 WP 8329 23.odt IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY BENCH AT AURANGABAD 972 WRIT PETITION NO.8329 OF 2023 1) Sanjay Vishwanath Rane 2) Sharad Santosh Dasnur 3) Dadaji Sudam Narwade 4) Archana Nandkishore Mahale 5) Chaya Adhar Ghanwat 6) Sharad Pundalik Shivde 7) Ratnakar Bhika Masule 8) Ramsing Vijaysing Thoke 9) Govind Bhausaheb Desale 10) Pradeep Dattatraya Borse 11) Sandeepsingh Ramesh Pawar 12) Walmik Devidas Halwar 13) Sagar Bhimrao Deshmukh 14) Rahul Jagannath Nandre 15) Nita Keshavsing Mahale 16) Vijay Walmik Karhe 17) Bharti Kadu Aher 18) Pradeep Walu Kale 19) Sandeep Subhas Ghuge 20) Pratibha Sarang Mahale 21) Vaishali Sitaram Bhoye 22) Dipakkumar Laxman Patil 23) Himmat Mahadeo Raut 24) Manjusha Yeshwant Pagar 25) Tatya Baban Ahere 26) Sadhana Sachin Jadhav 27) Vishnu Shankar Lahare 28) Dnyaneshwar Rajaram Velis 29) Dinkar Namdeo Pawar 30) Asha Gorakh Chavan 31) Gopal Narayan Raut 32) Rambhau Baburao Nikam 33) Walchand Raghunath Valgade 34) Jijabai Pandu Pakhane 35) Megha Shankar Mahale 36) Dinesh Sheshrao Pawar 37) Pushpa Chaudhari 38) Pandharinath Vitthal Chaudhari 39) Dadaji Baburao Pawar 40) Subhas Ramchandra Khambait 1/5 972 WP 8329 23.odt 41) Dnyaneshwar Shriram Chavan 42) Kashiram Dhawalu Pawar 43) Parashram Rajaram Wadekar 44) Balu Kashiram Dhum 45) Hiraman Gangaram Wadu 46) Ratan Ramdas Gavit 47) Balu Jairam Wadekar 48) Dhanraj Narayan Chaudhari 49) Hanumant Deoram Khavale 50) Hiraman Dada Gavit 51) Kashinath Madhu Mahale 52) Prakash Soma Gavit 53) Ishwarlal Ramlal Nerkar 54) Laxman Vishram Ahire 55) Kautik Govinda Savkar 56) Jaishree Shankar Chaudhari 57) Mahesh Shriram Gurav 58) Ravindra Uttam Hujare 59) Sakharam Mahadu Thakare 60) Manisha Madhavrao Pawar 61) Nivarutti Ananda Nikam 62) Lalita Vikram Bachhav 63) Sharad Kautik Pawar 64) Bhausaheb Keda Jadhav 65) Sitaram Mahadu Nikam 66) Yunus Gulab Shaikh 67) Lalchand Pawba Sable 68) Ratnakar Gavit, 69) Pradhan Bajirao Daure 70) Vijaya Guljarilal Jople 71) Rambhau Vishwanath Bagul 72) Shrikant Nanaji Devare 73) Jayesh Shyamlal Rohidas 74) Sahebrao Dhawalu Borse 75) Subhash Narayan Dongre 76) Eknath Amrut Bendkoli 77) Shobhabai Vishwnath Pawar 78) Sanjay Ramesh Patil 79) Nandlal Tulshiram Shinde VERSUS 1. The State of Maharashtra Through the Secretary, General Administration Department , ... PETITIONERS 2/5 972 WP 8329 23.odt Mantralaya, Mumbai-32. 2. The Secretary, Tribal Development Department , Mantralaya, Mumbai-32. 3. The Tribal Commissioner, Tribal Development Nashik, Dist: Nashik 4. The Additional Tribal Commissioner, Tribal Development Nashik, Div. Nashik … …RESPONDENTS
Legal Reasoning
respective sides and have perused the series of orders passed by this Court in favour of similarly situated petitioners, which have been annexed to the petition. 3.
Arguments
Advocate for the Petitioners : Mr. Shinde Balaji S. A.G.P. for the Respondents/State : Mr. A.S. Shinde CORAM : MANGESH S. PATIL & SHAILESH P. BRAHME, JJ. DATE : 14.07.2023 PER COURT : In this petition, the identically placed petitioners have put forth prayer clauses (B), (C) & (D), which read as under :- “B) This Honorable court, by issuing appropriate writ, order or directions, in the like nature, direct the respondent No. 4 to regrant and continue to pay one step pay scale (Ekstar) to the petitioners, though petitioners entitled for time bound promotion till petitioners works in Tribal/PESA area, as per G.R. dated 06.08.2002 and as per honorable High Court judgment dated 14.07.2021 in W.P. St.No. 9543/2021. C) This Honorable Court, by issuing appropriate writ, order or directions, in the like nature, kindly quash and set aside, impugned action of respondents thereby directing to withdraw one step pay scale and recovery of alleged excess 3/5 972 WP 8329 23.odt salary amount paid to the petitioners, as per orders annexed at Exh-D in view of the judgment of the honorable Apex Court in case of the State of Punjab and others Vs. Rafique Masia (white washer) and others reported in 2015(4) SCC 334, as petitioners are class-3 employee. D)This Honourable Court, by issuing appropriate writ, direct the respondents to fix the pay scale, as per Para-6 of G.R. dated 14.05.2019 and directed to be paid the salaries petitioners as per one step pay scale or pay scale which is more benefited to the petitioners and also directed to made available the option to apply the time bound promotion scale at appropriate time as per GR dated 14.05.2019.” 2. We have considered the submissions of the learned advocates for the
Decision
In view of the above, we do not find any such circumstances, which would convince us to take a different view. 4. The learned advocates representing the respective parties have clearly stated that the order passed by this Court at the Principal Seat, in Writ Petition No.8824/2021, dated 21/12/2021, is applicable to this case. 5. In view of the above, the Writ Petition is allowed in following terms :- (i) The impugned action of recovery initiated by the respondents is quashed and set aside. (ii) The Additional Commissioner, Tribal Development Department, Nashik - respondent No.4, shall scrutinize the records of all these petitioners and the places, at which 4/5 972 WP 8329 23.odt they are deployed for performing their duties, within a period of 21 days. (iii) Those cases, which do not suffer from any legal impediment after verification, shall be cleared by respondent No.4 and the salary benefits, to which they are entitled to, in the light of the one-step pay-scale made available to the employees working in the tribal and PESA areas, shall be paid, along with their arrears, as well as their current salaries, within a period of four weeks thereafter. (iv) After scrutiny, if any of these petitioners, on the basis of their records, are found to be ineligible, respondent No.4, would issue notices to each of such petitioners, so as to enable them to appear before him and address. (v) After such hearing, which shall be completed within four months from today, respondent No.4 shall pass appropriate orders and grant benefits of one-step pay-scale to those candidates, who are found to be eligible. (vi) Those petitioners, who suffer adverse orders after the above stated exercise is completed, would be at liberty to avail of a statutory remedy, as is permissible in law. ( SHAILESH P. BRAHME, J.) (MANGESH S. PATIL, J.) mkd/- 5/5