Pay-scale grievances may be raised under Bihar’s 2019 Government Servant Grievance Rules.

The petitioner sought correction of an alleged pay-scale discrepancy, claiming that a junior employee received a higher pay scale, together with payment of resulting arrears

The State raised a preliminary objection that the grievance was covered by the Bihar Government Servant Grievance Redressal Rules, 2019 (“Rules of 2019”)

The High Court considered the relevant provisions of those Rules and disposed of the writ petition

1. Whether the petitioner’s grievance concerning pay-scale disparity and consequential arrears fell within the complaint mechanism under the Rules of 2019.

2. Whether the petitioner should be directed to pursue that mechanism before obtaining consideration of the grievance by the competent authority.

Rule 2(c) of the Rules of 2019 defines a “complaint” to include service-benefit matters concerning salary payment and increments, among other listed matters; it excludes a matter that is already under consideration by a court.

Rule 3 provides for filing service-related complaints online and requires a separate application for each subject of grievance.

The judgment cites no precedent.

The Court treated the alleged pay-scale discrepancy and associated arrears as a service-benefit grievance falling within the matters described in Rule 2(c).

Rather than deciding the merits of the petitioner’s entitlement, it directed him to use the complaint procedure under the Rules of 2019 and required the concerned authority to pass orders within the period specified by those Rules.

It directed the concerned authority to decide the complaint within the time prescribed by those Rules and disposed of the writ petition; no determination was made on the merits of the pay-scale claim.