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Union of India & Ors. vs. C.R. Madhava Murthy & Anr.

Civil Appeal · 2022 INSC 397Decided 6 Apr 2022
Civil Appeal Nos. 2087-2088 of 2022
M.R. Shah · B.V. Nagarathna

Background

The respondents were promoted to the post of Superintendent of Central Excise and Customs in 2000. Some of their juniors, who had joined the department later, were subsequently granted pay upgradation under the government's Assured Career Progression (ACP) Scheme in 2005-2006 and, as a result, began drawing higher salaries than the respondents, their seniors. The respondents asked the department to correct this anomaly by "stepping up" their pay to match their juniors; when this was refused, they went to the Central Administrative Tribunal, which rejected their claim, but the Karnataka High Court later ruled in their favour, directing the pay to be stepped up.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court agreed with the High Court and dismissed the Union of India's appeal. It clarified that the respondents were not actually claiming a benefit under the ACP Scheme itself (which they were not otherwise entitled to, having already been promoted); rather, they were invoking a separate and well-established rule, Fundamental Rule (FR) 22, which corrects the anomaly that arises when a senior employee ends up drawing less pay than a junior employee in the same cadre and identical post, purely because of a scheme benefit given to the junior. Since all the conditions of FR 22 were satisfied on the facts, the respondents were entitled to have their pay stepped up to match their juniors from the date the juniors started drawing higher pay.

Lesson Learnt

When a junior employee ends up earning more than a senior in the same cadre and post purely due to a separate government scheme, the senior has an independent, well-settled right under the pay-anomaly rules (FR 22) to have their pay corrected: this is distinct from, and does not depend on, any claim under the scheme itself.

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

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