Bihar HC Grants Pay-Scale Upgrade To University Clerk Under Policy Covering Clerks And Head Clerks

The petitioner, who worked as a clerk at the College of Fisheries under the respondent University, sought the pay scale of Rs. 5,500–9,000 from 1 January 1996 and the corresponding revised scale, together with pay parity with assistants at the University headquarters.

He relied on the Division Bench decision in L.P.A. No. 766 of 2016 and analogous appeals, allowed on 24 January 2023.

The High Court considered whether the benefit of pay-scale upgradation for clerks and head clerks applied to him.

The Court relied on the Division Bench judgment in L.P.A. No. 766 of 2016, which, drawing on Union of India v. Rajib Khan, P.U. Joshi v. Accountant General, Ahmedabad, Union of India v. Pushpa Rani and S.C. Chandra v. State of Jharkhand, stated that pay fixation and upgradation are matters of policy, and employees have no automatic right to parity with a separate class of employees; differential treatment between distinct classes may be permissible under Article 14.

The Division Bench also directed that the policy benefit be extended to respondents who held clerk or head-clerk posts.

The Court found that the petitioner was employed as a clerk and therefore fell within the category covered by the State’s policy for clerks and head clerks.

Applying the Division Bench’s ruling and the cited Supreme Court authorities, it held that the policy benefit should extend to him.

The judgment does not separately analyse the petitioner’s requested parity with University-headquarters assistants; instead, it allows the petition in the terms of the Division Bench decision.

The writ petition was allowed in terms of the judgment in L.P.A. No. 766 of 2016.