The Punjab and Haryana High Court has directed the Haryana government to grant enhanced remuneration to District Consultants of the Water and Sanitation Support Organisation (WSSO), ensuring parity with District Programme Managers under the Haryana State Swachh Bharat Mission Society (HSSBMS). The court specified that the enhanced pay must be effective from December 1, 2016, along with the release of consequential arrears within three months.
Court Order and Background
Justice Sandeep Moudgil passed the order while allowing a petition filed by Deepak Kumar and other WSSO District Consultants. During the proceedings, the petitioners limited their claim to pay enhancement from December 1, 2016, on par with HSSBMS District Programme Managers, along with arrears.
The court noted that the issue of enhancing WSSO employees' remuneration was considered by the competent authority in a meeting on August 13, 2018, where the proposal was approved in principle. The matter was reconsidered in a meeting on February 3, 2021, which acknowledged that such parity had already been approved. Further deliberation occurred on April 12, 2022, culminating in the Finance Department's concurrence on August 18, 2022, followed by an office order on September 7, 2022, granting the benefit.
Court Observations
Justice Moudgil observed that the chronology of events left little doubt that the respondents themselves had accepted the parity claim well before the September 7, 2022 order. The court rejected the respondents' argument that the duties and responsibilities of petitioners were materially different from those of HSSBMS District Programme Managers, stating that such a stand was inconsistent with their own official record.
“Had the posts been incomparable in nature, there was no occasion for the competent authorities to repeatedly approve and reiterate the proposal for grant of remuneration at par with HSSBMS staff,” the bench observed. The court further held that once parity was granted by the employer itself, the burden shifted to the respondents to justify the selection of a later date, which they failed to do.
Delay and Interest
The High Court noted that the delay appeared to result from financial concurrence and administrative processing at different levels. “The State cannot take advantage of its own inaction and thereafter deny consequential benefits for the interregnum. The petitioners cannot be deprived of monetary benefits merely because the respondents took considerable time in implementing a decision already accepted in principle,” the bench stated.
Holding that the petitioners' entitlement was recognized much earlier and that the September 2022 order merely implemented an already accepted decision, the court ruled that the respondents were not justified in restricting the benefit of enhanced remuneration to August or December 2022.
Final Verdict
Allowing the petition, Justice Moudgil set aside the June 14, 2021 communication to the extent it denied the claim and directed the respondents to re-fix the petitioners' remuneration on par with HSSBMS District Programme Managers from December 1, 2016. The court also ordered release of consequential arrears within three months, failing which the amount would carry interest at six percent per annum from the date it became due until actual payment.
