Eight Bihar Clerks Appointed After Dec 20, 2000 Cannot Get Rs 4,000–6,000 Pay Scale, Patna HC Holds

The petitioners sought the pay scale of Rs. 4,000–6,000, with consequential arrears, instead of the scale of Rs. 3,050–4,590, relying on earlier decisions concerning the merger and subsequent nomenclature of Lower Division Clerk and Upper Division Clerk posts

The State objected that the Full Bench in Ravi Shankar Kumar v. State of Bihar, 2025 SCC OnLine Pat 2627, had held that appointments made after 20 December 2000 were entitled only to the lower scale; the petitioners had been appointed after that date

The Court applied the Full Bench’s interpretation of the Finance Department Resolution dated 20 December 2000. Under that ruling, the demerger of the Assistant post resulted in three separate posts—Lower Division Clerk, Upper Division Clerk and Assistant—and vacancies existing in the former Assistant post were treated as vacancies in the Lower Division Clerk post, the lowest post in the category.

Persons appointed as Lower Division Clerks after 20 December 2000 were therefore entitled to the pay scale of Rs. 3,050–4,590, irrespective of their source of appointment; the principle of “equal pay for equal work” did not confer entitlement to the higher scale

The Full Bench had resolved the relevant pay-scale question and held that post-demerger appointments made after 20 December 2000 could only be made to the Lower Division Clerk post in the lower scale

As the petitioners were appointed after that date, the Court found their circumstances fell within that ruling. Their reliance on earlier decisions did not displace the applicable Full Bench determination

dismissed the writ petition