Historical pay-revision benefits do not extend to employees appointed after the revision.

The applicants joined the Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) as Nursing Orderlies in 2010 and 2011 and were promoted as O.T. Assistants on 26 February 2020, with pay fixed at Level 3.

They sought Level 4 pay, relying on orders implementing the Tribunal’s decision in Ajit Singh & Ors. v. Union of India & Ors., O.A. No. 4644 of 2015, and on earlier decisions granting the pre-revised scale of Rs. 4,000–6,000 to similarly placed employees.

After the Tribunal directed the respondents to decide their representations, ESIC rejected them, stating that the applicants’ Recruitment Rules prescribed Level 3 and that Level 4 had been granted to the earlier applicants pursuant to specific judicial directions.

The applicants challenged that rejection in this application.

1. Whether the applicants, promoted as O.T. Assistants in 2020, were entitled to Level 4 pay by relying on decisions and implementation orders concerning pay-scale benefits effective from 1 January 1996.

2. Whether ESIC’s rejection of their representations, based on the Recruitment Rules prescribing Level 3, warranted interference.

The application was brought under Section 19 of the Administrative Tribunals Act, 1985.

The Tribunal applied the principle that an employee cannot claim pay-scale or related benefits for a period before entering the relevant cadre, relying on Maheshkumar Chandulal Patel & Anr. v. State of Gujarat & Ors.; the cited passage states that granting benefits for years when the claimant was not in the cadre would be inequitable.

It also considered Ajit Singh and Dharmveer Singh Ranga, which concerned the grant of the pre-revised Rs. 4,000–6,000 scale following the Fifth Central Pay Commission, and the applicable Recruitment Rules prescribing Level 3 for O.T. Assistants.

The Tribunal distinguished the applicants’ circumstances from those in Ajit Singh: that case concerned employees seeking a scale effective from 1996, whereas the applicants joined ESIC in 2010 and 2011 and became O.T. Assistants in 2020.

The implementation order relied on by the applicants gave effect to the directions in Ajit Singh; it did not independently establish entitlement for employees who entered service later.

Applying the principle against claiming cadre benefits for a period before appointment, and noting that the Recruitment Rules prescribed Level 3, the Tribunal found no basis to interfere with the speaking order rejecting the representations.

Any interim order was discharged, and the related miscellaneous applications were disposed of.