K.N. Shrivastava ORDER
K.N. Shrivastava, Member (A)
1. MA No. 877/2012 filed by the applicants under Rule 4(5)(a) of Central Administrative Tribunal (Procedure) Rules, 1987 for joining together, is allowed in the interest of justice and to avoid multiplicity of litigation.
2. Through the medium of this Original Application (OA), filed under Section 19 of the Administrative Tribunals Act, 1985, the applicants have prayed for the following reliefs:
"i) In the circumstances it is therefore most respectfully prayed that this Hon'ble Tribunal may graciously be pleased to allow the O.A. and quashed the impugned orders;
ii) That this Hon'ble Tribunal may further be pleased to direct the Respondents that in the event of promotion of the applicants they will fix their salary in the next higher CDA pay scale and thereafter the applicants will exercise the option for switching over to IDA pay scale on voluntary basis".
3. The factual matrix of this case is as under:
3.1 The applicants are working in RITES Ltd.-respondent organization against the posts of Deputy General Manager (DGM) and Senior Deputy General Manager (Sr. DGM). The employees of RITES are having two types of pay scales, namely, the Central DA (CDA pay scales) and Industrial DA (IDA pay scales).
3.2 As per the promotion policy of 2003, the next promotional post for officers working as DGM used to be Joint General Manager (JGM). The respondents vide letter dated 22.09.2008 modified the said promotion policy and introduced an intermediary grade of Senior DGM in between DGM and JGM for which IDA pay scale of Rs. 16000-20800 was prescribed but no such CDA pay scale was prescribed. The respondents issued an office order dated 15.06.2009 (Annexure A-1) clarifying that an employees of RITES who was not willing to move to IDA scales on promotion would only be re-designated by retaining his/her existing CDA scale on promotion, on giving written undertaking for such acceptance. The Annexure A-1 office order was followed by Annexure A-2 office order dated 30.09.2009 wherein it was stated that in terms of Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) OM dated 10.08.2009, it has been settled that henceforth, all appointments on promotion in RITES shall be in IDA scales only. The DPE OM dated 10.08.2009 was annexed with the office order.
3.3 Thereafter, the respondents sent Annexure A-3 communication to some of the senior DGMs, few of them are applicants in this OA, stating therein, inter alia, that the office order dated 30.09.2009 (Annexure A-2) holds 'good' and all appointments on promotion in RITES shall be made in IDA scales only.
3.4 Aggrieved by Annexures A-1, A-2 orders and A-3 communication, the applicants have filed the present OA, seeking the reliefs as indicated in para-2 above.
4. The applicants have raised the following grounds in support of the reliefs claimed:
4.1 The impugned orders are arbitrary, discriminatory and unjustified. The applicants are being forced to switch over from CDA pay scales to IDA pay scales after having worked for more than 20 years in CDA pay scales.
4.2 The DGMs who have been promoted as Sr. DGMs are being pressurised to accept CDA pay scales of the lower post.
4.3 The Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of Jute Corporation Officers' Association and others v. Jute Corporation of India Ltd., [Writ Petition No. 13044/1984] has directed that the petitioners therein shall continue to enjoy the option to switch over to the IDA pattern of scale of pay on a........