1. M. SALEEM CHAUDHRY (CHAIRMAN).---Abdul Rashid, the appellant and 46 others are working as Laboratory Attendants in three Govt. Colleges in Lahore. They are aggrieved by the fact that whereas, in their case, the post of Laboratory Attendant is in N. P. S.-1, the Laboratory Attendants of nationalised colleges were placed in N. P. S.-2. It is common ground that there is no difference in the terms, duties and responsibilities of Laboratory Attendants in the two categories of colleges.
2. They, therefore, contend that Laboratory Attendants of Government colleges are entitled to N. P. S-2 with effect from 1st September 1972, the date from which their colleagues in the nationalised colleges started getting N. P. S.-2.
2. The appellants were heard. The record of the case was also sent for. According to the respondent Department, it is not practicable to equate the scales of pay given to the staff of the nationalised colleges with those of equivalent staff in the Govt. Colleges, as in the former a profusion of different scales prevailed in respect of the same job before nationalisation. It was submitted in regard to the post of Laboratory Attendant that before nationalization the nomenclature of the post varied with every college as did the grade of pay. The colleges were nationalised on 1st September, six months after the new pay-scale had been introduced on 1st March 1972 the issue of fixing the Laborary Attendants and other non-gazetted employees in the new pay-scale was debated for more than 2-- years and it was finally on 12th April 1975 that the Finance Department issued the necessary notification. According to this notification, the non--gazetted employees who were in service on 1st September 1972 were to be given the benefit of percentage increase prescribed under the Punjab (Non-Gazetted) Civil Services (Pay Revision) Rules, 1972, and after counting the increments earned in 1972 and thereafter, their salaries were to be fixed in the stage next above. Since most of the Laboratory Attendants from nationalised colleges, after application of this formula, were entitled to salaries considerably above the start of N. P. S.-1 they were adjusted in N. P. S.-2. It was stressed that these officials have been "adjusted" in N. P. S.-2 and not actually granted the scale. The scale for Laboratory Attendants continues to the N. P. S.-1 and newly-recruited Laboratory Attendants in nationalised colleges also receive N. P. S.-1.
3. Having heard the parties and scrutinised the record, we are satisfied that circumstances existed in the process of fixing officials of the nationalised colleges in the new pay scales in which the grant of N., P. S.-1 to the Laboratory Attendants of those colleges would have entailed financial hardship for them. We are also convinced that it was not possible to place some of them in N. P. S.-1. And others in N. P. S.-2. The whole process required uniform levelling up of a nature in which the Government was obliged to accept a little extra benefit to some but could not justifiably continuance less to a majority, having had to fix in one scale Laboratory Attendants who were formerly in more than a dozen different scales some of which were considerably more attractive than N. P. S.-1. As it is, the scheme of the National Pay scales provided that those who had reached the ceiling of one scale could, after a prescribed interval, automatically go into the next scale. This facility will also be available to the appellants if and when any of them reach the top of N. P. S.-1.
4. In view of the above, we are satisfied that grounds existed for the adjustment of the Laboratory Attendants of nationalised colleges in N. P. S.-2. The appeal is, therefore, dismissed with no order as to costs.