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P. Singaravelan & Ors. Etc. Etc. v. District Collector, Tiruppur and Dt & Ors. Etc Etc

Civil Appeal · 2019 INSC 1400Decided 18 Dec 2019
Civil Appeal Nos. 9533-9537 of 2019
Justice Mohan M. Shantanagoudar · Justice Krishna Murari

Background

Drivers employed in various Tamil Nadu government departments claimed higher "Selection Grade" and "Special Grade" pay scales under a 1998 pay-revision order (G.O. Ms. No. 162), relying on the fact that around 3,000 similarly placed drivers had already been granted these higher scales through earlier, mostly unreasoned, High Court and Supreme Court orders. The Madras High Court, departing from this run of earlier orders, held that the correct entitlement under the governing rules was actually a lower pay bracket.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court agreed with the High Court's ultimate conclusion (though not its reasoning path) that, correctly read, the 1998 pay-revision rules only entitled the drivers to the lower pay brackets (Rs. 4000-6000 and Rs. 4300-6000), not the higher ones claimed. It held that earlier Supreme Court orders merely dismissing special leave petitions without giving reasons are not binding declarations of law and don't attract the "doctrine of merger," so they could not be treated as settling the question. It also held that Article 14 (equality) embodies only "positive equality": a person cannot claim parity with others who were granted a benefit by mistake or error, because that would mean perpetuating an earlier wrong. The appeals were dismissed, while a connected set of appeals by the State regarding Delhi University drivers was partly allowed to bring their pay fixation in line with the same (lower) correct scale.

Lesson Learnt

You cannot invoke the right to equal treatment under Article 14 to claim a benefit that was granted to someone else by mistake or error: equality works to extend lawful treatment, not to spread an earlier wrong. Also, a bare, unreasoned dismissal of a special leave petition by the Supreme Court does not settle the underlying legal question for future cases.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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