There can be no discrimination in the pay-scales of employees holding the same post and doing the same work, the Delhi high court has said while disposing a bunch of cases related to the pay scales of the employees working under employment of Prasar Bharati.
The court passed the order, after citing to a Supreme Court judgment passed in M.P Singh case, and said, “…where employees enter the cadre from two different sources, if they do the same work and are similarly placed, there can be no discrimination in payment of wages.”
A division bench comprising Justices Pradeep Nandrajog and Mool Chand Garg, while dismissing the present petitions filed by Union Government and Director General (DG) of Doordarshan, said, “The employees in the same cadre can certainly be placed in different pay scales but that would be if it is shown that one set of employees has higher technical or education qualifications or performs more onerous duties vis-a-vis the other. But, where there is complete parity it would be highly discriminatory to treat employees differently merely on account of the two coming from two different sources.”
The issue relates to the Prasar Bharati, established in 1997 as the Public Service Broadcaster of the country, making different categories for the employees who were inducted from the ministry of information and broadcasting (I&B) and for those who were later appointed by Prasar Bharati on the same post and for those casual workers who acquired status of regular worker with Prasar Bharati.
The employees who came from the ministry of I&B were given pay-scale of Rs 6,500-10,500 as against a pay scale of Rs 5,000-8,000 given to the other categories. The case was earlier taken to the Central Administrative Tribunal.