Holding

The respondents remained in the Electrical Wing and are entitled to the Shiv Shankar Committee pay scale.

Summary

The respondents were initially recruited as Mechanics (Auto) in the Auto Workshop of the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) and were paid under the Shiv Shankar Committee pay scale, which applied to the Electrical Wing. They were later promoted to the post of Assistant Engineer (E & M), and NDMC contended that this post was created in the Hot Mix Plant, part of the Civil Engineering Wing, thereby subjecting the respondents to the Pay Commission pay scale. The respondents argued that even after promotion they continued to work in the Auto Workshop, which remained part of the Electrical Wing, and thus were entitled to retain the Shiv Shankar Committee pay scale. The High Court allowed the writ petition, and the Division Bench dismissed NDMC's appeal, finding no evidence that the promoted posts were part of the Civil Wing. The Supreme Court affirmed the High Court's view, holding that the lack of corroborating evidence meant the respondents remained in the Electrical Wing and were rightfully entitled to the Shiv Shankar Committee pay scale. Consequently, the appeal was dismissed without any order as to costs.

Issues considered

Whether the promotion of the respondents to Assistant Engineer (E & M) transferred them from the Electrical Wing to the Civil Wing of NDMC.
Whether the respondents are entitled to the Shiv Shankar Committee pay scale or the Pay Commission pay scale after promotion.

Legislation cited

Subjects

Service LawPay ScaleShiv Shankar CommitteePay CommissionPromotionElectrical WingCivil WingNDMCAssistant EngineerEmployment Law

Judgment

A NEW DELHI MUNICIPAL COUNCIL
v.
P.P. GARG AND ANR.

FEBRUARY 20, 2007

B [DR. AR. LAKSHMANAN AND AL TAMAS KABIR, JJ.]

Service Law:
}-
Pay Scale-NDMC-Mechanics (Auto)-Appointed as Assistant
C Engineer (E & M )--Continued to work in Auto workshop-As Mechanic
(Auto) drawing pay scale as per Shiv Shankar Committee Report-But on
being posted as Assistant Engineer ( E & M) granteJ pay scale according
to Pay Commission Report-Claim for pay-scale as per Shiv Shankar
Committee Report-Held, employees even after their promotion as Assistant
D Engineers (E & M) having been posted and continued in Auto Workshop
which forms part of Electrical Wing of NDMC are entitled to Shiv Shankar
Committee pay scale-New Delhi Municipal Council Act, 1994.

Respondents were recruited as Mechanics (Auto) in the Auto Workshop
of appellant-NDMC. They were getting the pay scale as per Shiv Shankar
E Committee Report. Subsequently they were appointed as Assistant Engineers
( E & M ), which according to the appellant formed part of Civil Engineering
Wing, in the pay scale recommended by the Pay Commission. The respondents
filed writ petitions before the High Court claiming Shiv Shankar Committee
pay scale on the ground that they had all along been working in the Auto
F Workshop Department of the NDMC and were retained in Auto Workshop
after promotion to the post of Assistant Engineer ( E & M ). The NDMC ,>--
c?ntested the writ petition stating that its work force was divided between the
Civil Engineering Department and the Electrical Wing. Though the
respondents were initially recruited as Mechanic (Auto) in Auto Workshop
pay-scales wherein were governed by Shiv Shankar Committee Report, they
G were subsequently posted as Assistant Engineers ( E & M) ill the Hot Mix
Plant in the Civil Engineering Wing which had its independent seniority list,
recruitment rules and pay-scales fixed in accordance with the
recommendations made by the Pay Commission, and, as such, they were not
entitled to pay scale as per Shiv Shankar Committee. The single Judge.ofthe

H 846
NEW DELHI MUNICIPAL COUNCIL v. P.P. GARG [ALTAMAS KABIR, J.] 847

High Court allowed the writ petition. The writ appeal of NDMC having been A
dismissed by the Division Bench of the High Court, it filed the present appeal

Dismissing the appeal, the Court

HELD: Except for a bald statement that the post of Assistant Engineer
(E & M) had been created in the Hot Mix Plant, which was a part of the Civil B
Wing ofNDMC, there is no other corroborating evidence to support the said
statement of the NDMC. Nothing has been shown on behalf of NDMC to
~ establish the stand taken on its behalf that the posts in question had, in fact,
been created in the Hot Mix Plant or that the same formed part of the Civil
Wing. In the circumstances, the High Court was justified in arriving at the C
conclusion that since the respondents/writ-petitioners, even after their
promotion to the post of Assistant Engineers ( E & M), had been posted and
continued to work in the Auto Workshop, which forms a part of the Electrical
Wing of the NDMC, they were entitled to the Shiv Shankar Committee pay-
scale. (Para 11) [851-B-D)
D
R.D. Gupta v. Lt.Governor, Delhi Admn. & Ors., (1987) 4 SCC 505, held
inapplicable.
r
CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION : Civil Appeal No. 864 of 2007. ·

From the final Judgment and Order dated I5.2.2005 of the High Court E
of Delhi at New Delhi in L.P.A. No. 34/2004.

Rakesh K. Khanna, Surya Kant, Rashmi Khanna and Jahanvi Warah for
the Appellant.

Inderjeet Swaroop, Prem Kumar and Manjeet Chawla for the F
Respondents.

The Judgment of the Court was delivered by

ALTAMAS KABIR, J. 1. Leave granted.
G
2. The New Delhi Municipal Committee was constituted under the
Punjab Municipal Act, 1911. It was later on renamed and reconstituted as the
New Delhi Municipal Council by virtue of the New Delhi Municipal Council
Ordinance notified on 25th May, 1994, which was later on replaced by the
New Delhi Municipal Council Act, 1994 with effect from 5th July 1994. The H
848 SUPREME COURT REPORTS (2007] 2 S.C.R.

A work force of the New Delhi Municipal Council (hereinafter referred to as the
'NDMC') is divided between the Civil Engineering Department and the Electrical
~+ \. .
Wing. According to the NDMC, a Hot Mix Plant fonns part of the Civil
Engineering Wing ofNDMC and in 1974 the post of Assistant Engineer (E
& M) was created in the Hot Mix Plant. The role of the Assistant Engineer
( E & M) was confined to looking after the electrical and mechanical circuits
B of vehicles owned by the NDMC whereas Electrical Engineers working in the
electricity wing were looking after the supply and distribution of electricity
in the NDMC area. According to the NDMC, not only were the two posts
different in terms of nature of duty and qualification, but they also belong to
different departments and e~joy different pay-scales.
c The respondents in this appeal had been recruited as Mechanic (Auto)
in the Auto Workshop ofNDMC which is a part and parcel of the electricity
establishment and were enjoying pay-scales as per the recommendations of
the Shiv Shankar Committee. Subsequently, they were appointed to the post
of Assistant Engineer (E & M), which according to the NDMC fonned part
D of the Civil Engineering Wing having their independent seniority list,
recruitment rules and pay-scales fixed in accordance with the recommendations
-(
made by the Pay Commission. Consequent upon their promotion to the post
of Assistant Engineer ( E & M), the pay of the respondents was also refixed
from the Shiv Shankar Committed pay-scale to the pay-scale recommended by
'
the Pay Commission.
E
3. On 27th October, 1997, Jong after promotion to the po~t of Assistant
Engineer ( E & M), the respondents filed Writ Petition No. 4805/1997 in the
Delhi High Court inter alia for issuance of an appropriate writ to direct the
NDMC to fix the pay of the respondents in the Shiv Shankar Committee pay-
F scale for their promotional post of Assistant Engineer (E & M) with effect ,>-
from the date of their respective promotions. By his judgment dated 21st \
August, 2003, the Single Judge of the Delhi High Court allowed the writ
"
petition upon holding that since the auto workshop of the NDMC had been
held by this Court to be part and parcel of the electricity establishment, the
writ petitioners were entitled to receive the Shiv Shankar Committee pay-scale. (
G An appeal, bei.ng L.P.A.No.34/2004, preferred by the appellant herein was
dismissed by the Division Bench of the High Court by a very brief order upon
-Y
holding that the contention of the appellant that on promotion the respondents
were transferred to the Civil Wing could not be accepted as even after (
promotion they were working in the Auto Workshop itself, which forms part •
H of the Electricity Wing.
NEW DELHI MUNICIPAL COUNCIL v. P.P. GARG [ALTAMAS KABIR, J] 849

4. Mr. Rakesh Khanna, learned senior counsel appearing for the NDMC, A
repeated the stand taken on behalf of NDMC before the Delhi High Court.
He admitted that the writ petitioners-respondents herein, had been appointed
in the initial stage in the Auto Workshop ofNDMC, which admittedly formed
part of the Electrical Wing. The salaries of the writ petitioners were, therefore,
fixed in the pay-scales as recommended by the Shiv Shankar Committee which B
had been accepted by the NDMC. Subsequently, however with the creation
of the post of Assistant Engineer (E & M) in the Hot Mix Plant, the writ
petitioners-respondents consciously accepted promotion to the post of
Assistant Engineer (E & M) which was created in the year 1974 and formed
part of the Civil Engineering Wing which had different sets of pay-scales fixed
on thi; basis of the recommendations of the Pay Commission. After having C
enjoyed the said scale for about 10 years, the writ petitioners-respondents
made a claim for fixation of their pay-scale according to the recommendations
of the Shiv Shankar Committee pay-scale purportedly on the ground that
since after promotion they were continued to be stationed in the Auto
Workshop, which formed part of the Electrical Wing, they were entitled to the D
benefit of the Shiv Shankar Committee pay-scale.
)-.
5. Mr.Khanna urged that both the Single Judge, as also the Division
1 Bench of the Delhi High Court, had completely disregarded the fact that the
post of Assistant Engineer (E & M) had been created in the Hot Mix Plant
which was part of the Civil Wing, and notwithstanding the posting of the writ E
petitioners-respondents in the Auto Workshop, they were part and parcel of
the Civil Wing. Mr. Khanna submitted that the Delhi High Court had proceeded
on the erroneous assumption that since the writ petitioners-respondents had
been posted in the Auto Workshop even after their promotion to the post of
Assistant Engineer (E & M), they· must be held to be part of the Electrical p
Wing of the NDMC. Mr. Khanna urged that the said basic error in
understanding the manner in which the writ petitioners-respondents had been
promoted and thereafter posted in the Auto Workshop Department, has
resulted in a judgment which is liable to be set aside.

6. In conclusion, Mr. Khanna referred to the judgment of this Court in G
the case of R.D. Gupta v. Lt.Governor , Delhi Admn. & Ors., reported in
[I 987] 4 SCC 505, wherein it was held that the Civil Engineering Department
was separate and self-contained and that the employees of the said department
were not entitled to the benefit of the Shiv Shankar Committee pay-scale.
H
7. On behalf of the writ petitioners-respondents, it was urged that the
850 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [2007] 2 S.C.R.

A writ-petitioners-respondents, who had all along been working in the Auto '
--"'r" '-
Workshop Department of the NDMC, had been retained in the Auto Workshop
after promotion to the post of Assistant Engineer ( E & M). It was denied
that the said promotional post was part of the Hot Mix Plant or that the same
formed part of the Civil Wing. On the other hand, it was the definite contention
of the writ petitioners-respondents that having been recruited in the Auto
B
Workshop, which admittedly was part of the Electrical Wing of the NDMC,
they had been retained in the Auto Workshop even after their promotion to
the post of Assistant Engineer (E & M) and they continued to belong to the
)-
Electrical Wing and were thus entitled to the Shiv Shankar Committee pay-
scale.
c
8; It was urged that the decision in R.D. Gupta's case (supra) referred
to and relied upon by Mr. Rakesh Khanna had no application to the facts of
the present case since the writ petitioners claimed to be a part of the Electrical
Wing, whereas in R.D. Gupta's case it was the Assistant Engineers (Civil) who
had raised grievance before this Court that they were at par with Electrical
D
Engineers. Appearing for the respondents, Mrs. Inderjeet Swaroop submitted
that the said decision had been rendered on a totally different set of facts and -4
had been rightly held by the learned Single Judge not to be of any help to
theNDMC. '
E 9. From the aforesaid submissions it will be evident that the only
question for decision in this appeal is whether the writ petitioners-respondents
on their promotion to the post of Assistant Engineer (E & M) were transferred
to the Civil Wing from the Electrical Wing to which they had been originally
recruited. The question as to whether the writ petitioners-respondents would
be entitled to the Shiv Shankar Committee pay-scale, which is applicable to
F the Electrical Wing only, will depend on the answer of the said question. >-

10. There is no difficulty with regard to the initial recruitment of the writ
petitioners-respondents in the Electrical Wing since the Auto Workshop was
admittedly a part of the of the Electrical Wing. The difficulty arose with the
G promotion of the writ petitioners to the post of Assistant Engineer (E &M),
which according to the appellant were posts which were created in the Civil
Department in the Hot Mix Plant. It has been contended on behalf of the
.;...-
NDMC that the H~t Mix Plant was a part of the Civil Department and the writ
petitioners-respondents had consciously accepted promotion to the said posts
which entailed a transfer of their services from the Electrical Wing to the Civil
H
Wing of the NDMC, carrying with it all its consequences.
NEW DELHI MUNICIPAL COUNCIL v. P.P. GARG [ALTAMAS KABIR, J.] 85 J
On behalf of the appellant-NDMC an attempt has been made to show A
that the work performed by the writ petitioners-respondents were confined to
looking after the electrical and mechanical circuits of vehicles owned by the
NDMC and their nature of work could by no stretch of imagination be
compared to the work performed by the electrical engineers who were looking
after the supply and distribution of electricity in the NDMC area.
B
11. Unfortunately, except for a bald statement that the post of Assistant
Engineer (E & M) had been created in the Hot Mix Plant, which was a part
of the Civil Wing of NDMC, there is no other corroborating evidence to
support the said statement. Nothing has been shown on behalf of NDMC to
establish the stand taken on its behalf that the posts in question had, in fact, C
been created in the Hot Mix Plant or that the same formed part of the Civil
Wing. In-the said circumstances, the Single Judge of the Delhi High Court was
justified in arriving at the conclusion that since the writ-petitioners, even after
their promotion to the post of Assistant Engineer (E & M), had been posted
in the Auto Workshop, which forms a part of the Electrical Wing of the
NDMC, they were entitled to the Shiv Shankar Committee pay-scale. The D
Division Bench while considering the appeal also accepted the said position
and on the same reasoning categorically rejected the contention raised on
t behalf of NDMC that the writ petitioners on promotion had been transferred
to the Civil Wing. The Division Bench observed that such a contention could
not be accepted as even after the promotion, the writ petitioners continued E
to work in the Auto Workshop which formed part of the Electrical Wing.

12. As indicated hereinabove, nothing has been shown on behalf of
NDMC which. could have persuaded us to take a view which was different
from that of the Single Judge and the Division Bench of the Delhi High Court.
F
13. In such circumstances, we see no reason to interfere with the
decision of the High Court and the appeal is accordingly dismissed but
without any order as to costs.

RP. Appeal dismissed.