The respondents before the Supreme Court had moved the CAT challenging the decision of the Ministry of Finance (appellant) which had rejected their request for parity in payment for the Junior Design Officers (JDOs) in Navy with that of Civilian Technical Officers (CTOs) Design, as per the recommendation of the Fifth Central Pay Commission.
The cadre of Design officers in the Indian Navy was created in the year 1965 in order to meet the functional requirements of Navy, which comprises of drawing staff of varied discipline.
The Group ‘B’ gazetted posts were designated as JDOs, and for armament disciplines, the Group ‘B’ gazetted posts were designated as CTOs (Design). All the pay scales of all the disciplines and all grades were the same upto the Fifth Central Pay Commission.
However, after the recommendations of the Fifth Central Pay Commission, the pay scale of ₹7500-12000 was fixed for the CTOs, whereas the pay scale of ₹7450-11500 was fixed for the JDOs.
The CAT initially directed the Finance Ministry to reconsider the request of the respondents with regard to parity in pay scale of JDOs along with CTOs by evaluating their duties. However, the Ministry rejected the same.
The respondents then moved CAT for the second time challenging the rejection, which then set aside the order of rejection by the ministry and ruled in favor of the respondents.
The High Court upheld the order of the CAT prompting the Central government to move the present appeal before the top court.
Source: Barandbench
