A prior promotion-date pay option bars re-exercise for Sixth CPC fixation from 1 January 2006.

The applicant, a retired Loco Pilot Mail, sought permission to re-exercise his option for pay fixation under the Sixth Central Pay Commission structure from 1 January 2006, together with consequential pensionary benefits.

He had been promoted to Loco Pilot Mail on 1 May 2006 and had earlier exercised an option concerning the date of pay fixation.

In 2013, he sought re-fixation, relying on Railway Board letter dated 12 September 2013. The Railways rejected the request, stating that the letter did not permit re-exercise of the option for the Sixth CPC pay structure.

The Tribunal noted that the applicant’s original option form was not on record and that he raised the issue in 2013.

Whether the applicant was entitled to re-exercise his option and have his pay re-fixed under the Sixth CPC structure from 1 January 2006.

Whether the applicant was entitled to consequential benefits, including revised pension, arising from the requested re-fixation.

The Railway Services (Revised Pay) Rules, 2008, including the proviso to Rule 5, permitted an employee to opt to continue drawing pay in the existing scale until the next increment.

Railway Board letter No. PC-VI/2011/IC/1 dated 12 September 2013 (RBE 95/2013) provided for re-fixation from the date of promotion or the date of the next increment in the feeder category under Rule 1303, read with FR 22(I)(a)(1), subject to the prescribed time limit. Railway Board’s clarification dated 1 March 2016 stated that the 2013 letter did not provide for re-exercising an option to obtain the Sixth CPC revised pay structure from 1 January 2006.

No judicial precedents were cited.

The Tribunal found that the applicant’s pay had been fixed from the date of his promotion, 1 May 2006, and concluded that he had already exercised his option for fixation from that date, although the option form was not annexed to the pleadings.

It further held that the 2013 Railway Board letter concerned re-fixation linked to promotion or the next increment; it did not authorize a fresh option to obtain Sixth CPC pay fixation from 1 January 2006. In light of the Railway Board’s 2016 clarification, the respondents’ refusal to grant the requested re-fixation disclosed no anomaly.

The Original Application was dismissed, with no order as to costs.