Third MACP must grant the next higher grade pay, not repeat the existing grade pay.

The applicants were Tailors/Master Craftsmen (MCM) working at Ordnance Equipment Factory, Kanpur. They had initially been appointed as Semi-Skilled Tailors in or around 1983, were subsequently designated as Skilled Workers, and received benefits under the Assured Career Progression (ACP) Scheme and later under cadre-restructuring orders applicable to artisan staff.

Under the pre-existing structure, the applicants were placed in the Highly Skilled/Master Craftsman grades and, after completion of 24 years of service, were granted the second ACP in 2007 in the revised pay structure corresponding to Grade Pay of Rs.4,200.

Their claim for third financial upgradation under the Modified Assured Career Progression Scheme (MACPS), on completion of 30 years of regular service, in Grade Pay of Rs.4,600 was rejected by separate orders dated 31 January 2015.

The respondents instead treated the applicants as eligible only for Grade Pay of Rs.4,200, which was subsequently granted with 3% fixation benefit.

The applicants challenged the rejection orders and sought third MACP in Grade Pay of Rs.4,600, contending that placement as Master Craftsman was not a promotion and that they were already drawing Grade Pay of Rs.4,200 before their third financial upgradation.

Whether the applicants’ placement in the grade of Master Craftsman/Highly Skilled grade could be treated as a promotion for determining their entitlement under the MACPS?

Whether applicants already drawing Grade Pay of Rs.4,200 were entitled, on completion of 30 years of regular service, to third financial upgradation in the next higher Grade Pay of Rs.4,600 under the MACPS?

Whether the impugned orders dated 31 January 2015, denying Grade Pay of Rs.4,600 on the ground that the applicants had not drawn the pre-revised scale of Rs.5,000–8,000 before 31 December 2005, were sustainable?

The Tribunal applied the MACPS introduced by the DoP&T Office Memorandum dated 19 May 2009, under which financial upgradation is to be granted on completion of 10, 20 and 30 years of regular service by placement in the immediate next higher Grade Pay in the hierarchy of the revised pay bands and Grade Pays.

The Tribunal distinguished the earlier ACP Scheme, which provided financial advancement in the next promotional pay scale, from the MACPS, which operates on the basis of the next higher Grade Pay.

It also considered the Ministry of Defence and Ordnance Factory Board restructuring instructions concerning the status of the Master Craftsman grade, including the competing administrative position that such placement constituted promotion.

The Tribunal relied on the principle that an administrative circular cannot override the governing provisions of a Government scheme, and referred to decisions including F.C. Jain and other Tribunal decisions concerning placement and financial upgradation.

The Tribunal found that, irrespective of the dispute concerning whether placement as Master Craftsman amounted to promotion, the applicants were in fact drawing Grade Pay of Rs.4,200 before the third MACP became due.

The respondents’ reason for denying Grade Pay of Rs.4,600 was that the applicants had not been drawing the pre-revised scale of Rs.5,000–8,000 before 31 December 2005; however, the Tribunal held that this reasoning was inconsistent with the MACPS, which requires placement in the immediate next higher Grade Pay rather than in a particular historical promotional scale.

Since the applicants were already receiving Grade Pay of Rs.4,200, granting a purported third MACP in the same Grade Pay of Rs.4,200 did not constitute the next financial upgradation contemplated by the scheme.

The subsequent departmental circular granting only the same Grade Pay, even with 3% increment fixation, could not prevail over the MACPS itself.

Accordingly, the next permissible Grade Pay was Rs.4,600.

It directed the respondents to grant each applicant third financial upgradation under the MACPS, on completion of 30 years of regular service, in Grade Pay of Rs.4,600, subject to the applicants otherwise satisfying the eligibility conditions, together with all consequential benefits.

The directions were to be implemented within five months from receipt of a certified copy of the order.

No order was made as to costs, and the associated miscellaneous applications were disposed of.