Court cannot fix pay scale of employees: SC

New Delhi, Feb 24 (UNI) The Supreme Court has held that court cannot fix pay scales of employees and it is exclusively the job of the government concerned.

The ruling was handed down by a bench comprising Justices A K Mathur and Altamas Kabir while allowing the appeal of state of Bihar against Patna High Court order, directing the state government to pay to the veterinary doctors according to the pay scales of the Central Government.

The apex court in its judgement dated February 22 noted "therefore the Fitment Committee after taking into account the conditions obtaining the state of Bihar and the duties which are being discharged by the veterinarians and other services vis-a-vis the services in the Central government has worked out a balancing work and recommended the pay scale of 6,500-7,500 after looking into various evidence which have been produced before the Fitment Committee." "Therfore it was not proper to have disturbed this finding nor was it correct on the part of the learned single judge as well as division bench of the High Court to have interfered with the same.

If the court start disturbing the recommendations of the pay scale in a particular class of service than it is likely to have cascading effect on all related sevices which may result into multifarious litigation," the court added.

The apex court said, "the Fitment Committee has undertaken the exercise and recommended the wholesale revision of the pay scale in the state of Bihar and if one class of service is to be picked up and granted higher pay scale as is availabale in the Centeral government than the whole balance will be disturbed, other services are likely to be affected resulting in complex situation in the state and it may lead to ruination of the finances of the state." UNI AKS SC SV AS1211