The Supreme court of India has passed a land mark judgement striking down the order of the Bihar High Court, regarding an alteration in the pay commission report.
The Veterinary Doctors who were recommended a pay scale of Rs 10,500 recommended by the BiharState pay commission, filed a writ questioning the disparity between the scale recommended to them since the pay scale of veterinary doctors as recommended by the central pay commission is Rs 13,500.The Bihar High court aloowed the writ and directed the Bihar Government to fix their scale at Rs 13,500.
Considering the appeal preferred by the Bihar State Government, the Supreme court of India, chaired by Justices A.K.Mathur and Altas Kabir, quashed the order with the reasoning that since the state commission’s pay commission is an administrative body and within the administrative control of the State of Bihar, courts should not and in fact they have no power to intervene with the recommendations of a pay commission appointed by a state.Moreover, the recommendations of a pay commission depend upon the resources of a state government, there is no reason to interfere with the recommendation of a State’s pay commission.Moreover, the demands like state pay commission report’s parity at par with central government pay commission etc should not be entertained.
Though the judgement may be on the one hand strictly define and earmark the jurisdiction limit of the courts, still it negates the idea or timetested concept of equal pay for equal work.For example can we allow in a democratic government, a pay scale of Rs 2,500 for a sweeper in a state government and 3500 for the same sweeper in the central government ?The judgement of the Supreme court though a land mark one, defies logic.After all we in the south are craving for parity in the case of the prices of paddy at par with wheat as it prevails in the north.