Higher officials never discuss salary, promotion issues; why are class III and IV employees suffering? Madhya Pradesh High Court asks Cabinet to intervene

“We have come across many cases in which Class IV employees of various departments of the State of Madhya Pradesh have been affected by the decisions taken by senior officers. Most of the cases are related to withdrawal of pay scale upgradation, recovery at the time of retirement and not giving equal benefits to the remaining employees and delay in promotion etc. We have not come across any such case in which Class I and II officers are approaching this High Court in such a case. Therefore, the Council of Ministers should consider why Class III and IV employees are becoming victims of the wrong and stubborn attitude of the senior officers of the concerned department, so that Class III and IV employees can be saved from being harassed and valuable time of the court can be saved.”

The court also referred to the litigation policy formulated by the state in the year 2018, which provides for the formation of state and district level committees, department-wise committees for settlement of minor disputes.

The court said,

"It appears that the said policy is gathering dust in the files. The present appeal was filed by the appellant/State of Madhya Pradesh and others being aggrieved by the order passed in Writ Petition No. 26705/2022 by which recovery of an amount of Rs. 94,056/- from the retired Class IV employee/respondent was quashed. The appeal was filed after a delay of 711 days. Therefore, an application for condonation of delay was also filed. The court refused to condone the delay and held that it was justified to grant the benefit of higher pay scale to the petitioner/respondent in the light of the executive direction. Since the eligibility of the petitioner was not in dispute, the court held that the State had no standing to challenge the impugned order by way of appeal.

In the final order passed on February 17, the court had directed the Government Pleader to summon the Officer-in-Charge (IOC) with a note-sheet as to who gave the permission/opinion/approval to file this writ appeal before the Division Bench.

"We are shocked and surprised It is submitted that neither the Advocate General Office nor the Law Department gave any sanction for filing this writ appeal despite the fact that the Chief Engineer, PHE, Bhopal vide order dated 16.12.2024 appointed the IOC and directed them to file this writ appeal. No reasons have been given as to why the Chief Engineer considered this case fit for filing a writ appeal before this Court. There is no explanation as to how this writ appeal can be admitted on merits, that too with an unexplained delay of 711 days. The present writ appeal is filed only to waste public money and to waste valuable time of this Court.”

Further the Principal Secretary, Public Health Engineering Department was personally present before the Court. When asked as to why the Chief Engineer gave the opinion to file the present writ appeal, he submitted that the matter was placed before the Cabinet for approval for creation of additional posts and the writ petitioner can only be given the benefit of upgradation.

The Court said,

“This clarification is even more shocking to us that in respect of refund of Rs. 94,056/- as compensation to Class IV employees, the Government is going to place the matter before the Cabinet, particularly when the impugned action has already been dismissed by this Court in the writ petitions as well as writ appeals in respect of similar employees in the year 2017-18.”

The appeal was dismissed with a cost of Rs 20,000 on the Chief Engineer, Public Health Engineering Department, Bhopal who had given the opinion to file the writ appeal without examining the facts and law involved in the case.