Supreme Court Upholds Separate Pay Structure For Re-Employed Tribunal Officers

New Delhi, Aug 14 (KNN) The Supreme Court dismissed a plea by former judicial officers re-employed as Presiding Officers of Central Government Industrial Tribunals-cum-Labour Courts (CGIT-cum-LCs), seeking pay scales equivalent to those granted to officers of other national tribunals under the 6th Pay Commission.

A bench of Justice SVN Bhatti and Justice NV Anjaria held that re-employed officers can be treated as a separate class for pay fixation. 

The petitioners, posted in New Delhi and Hyderabad, had argued that CGIT-cum-LCs were comparable to CAT, ITAT and DRT and that denying them the 6th Pay Commission scales violated Articles 14 and 16.

Supreme Court Upholds Pay Structure Linked To District Judiciary

The Union government opposed the plea, stating that the petitioners were re-employed after retirement and their pay was governed by the 1986 rules for re-employed pensioners. 

It said the CGIT-cum-LC pay structure was revised based on recommendations of judicial pay bodies, including the Shetty Commission and Justice E. Padmanabhan Committee.

The Supreme Court upheld parity with the District Judiciary, except for Presiding Officers of national tribunals in Mumbai and Kolkata, holding that industrial tribunals and labour courts operate within states and the classification was reasonable.

Court Limits Intervention In Pay-Fixation Matters

The Bench said pay fixation and classification are primarily matters for the executive and expert bodies such as Pay Commissions. It held that courts should defer to such bodies unless there is evidence of mala fide action.

The Court ruled that re-employed retired officers form a separate class for pay fixation and that their claim to 6th Pay Commission scales could not be sustained under Articles 14 and 16, as the classification was rational and intelligible.

(KNN Bureau)