CHENNAI: In the case of a senior and a junior employee holding similar educational qualifications and working in the same cadre and post, there should be no disparity between them in relation to increments, held the Madras High Court and directed the State to hike the pay of a senior BT assistant who is receiving lesser salary than his junior.

Observing that the school education department had misread the Fundamental Rules 22 (B) ruling 2 (i), and rejected the representation of the petitioner who is receiving salary lesser than his junior, Justice Mummineni Sudheer Kumar allowed the senior BT assistant’s petition.

Referring to Article 39 (d) of the Constitution of India, the judge wrote that increasing pay should ensure parity among seniors and juniors. He also directed the director of school education to raise the petitioner’s pay on par with his junior, along with all consequential benefits, within two months. He ruled that the department’s rejection order has absolutely no relevance and does not stand for legal scrutiny and it cannot be sustained and set aside the order.

The petitioner S Alaguraj was appointed as Bachelor of Teaching (BT) assistant in TN school educational subordinate services in July 1980 through transfer. The next month, G Kalaiselvi, a junior to the petitioner was also appointed as BT Assistant through direct recruitment.

Later, as per the fifth pay commission, the petitioner was granted an incentive increment after he completed postgraduate degrees MA and MEd. Similarly, Kalaiselvi’s pay was increased in the sixth pay commission, as she completed the same postgraduate degrees. However, the incentive granted to Kalaiselvi was higher than Alaguraj even though she is junior. Aggrieved by this, Alaguraj made a representation before the department seeking to step up his pay on par with Kalaiselvi.

In February 2001, after hearing the petitioner the school education department rejected his plea as the increment was granted by following the Fundamental Rules 22 (B). After this, Alaguraj knocked on the HC door.