1. ' ZAFFAR HusSAIN MIRZA, J.-These two petitions for special leave to appeal are directed against a consolidated order dated 14-3-1983 whereby the Sind Service Tribunal, Karachi dismissed the appeals separately filed by the petitioners in these petitions under section 4 of the Sind Service Tribunal Act, 1974. As common questions of law have been raised in these petitions we propose to dispose of the two petitions by this common order.
2. ' Mr. Ghous Muhammad (petitioner in C. P. S. L. A. No, K-206 of 1983) and Mr. Saiyid Saeed Ashhad (petitioner in C. P. S. L. A. No, K-213 of 1983) were both serving in the Sind Judicial service as Additional District and Sessions Judges, drawing salary in Grade 18 of the National Pay Scale plus Rs, 220 which was characterised as special pay. They were both transferred to posts in the Sind Secretariat which carry special pay. Mr. Ghous Muhammad was posted as deputy Secretary (Law).
3. M. L. A. Secretariat, Karachi, which carries a fixed pay sclale in Grade 18 with a special pay of Rs, 275 per month. Mr. Saiyid Saeed Ashhad was posted as Draftsman, Law Department which post also carries a fixed salary of N. P. S. Grade 18 plus Special Pay of Rs, 330 per month. Both officers are serving in these posts upto date.
4. ' The petitioners claimed that they were entitled to draw the special pay attached to their respective posts in addition to their salaries as Additional District and Sessions Judges i. e. N. P. S. Grade 18 plus Rs 220, which according to them was the ordinary pay scale attached to the substantive posts held by them. Their claim, however, did not meet the approval and acceptance of the Finance Department. The departmental appeals of the petitioners having failed, they preferred appeals before the Service Tribunal. In reply to their case the plea of the department in its written statement was as follows.
5. "The appellants (petitioners herein), so long as they held the posts of Additional District and Sessions Judges, were entitled to pay in N. P. S. 18 plus Special Pay of Rs, 220 per month. On transfer from the said posts they would be entitled to such pay and emoluments as are attached to the posts to which they are transferred and appointed, provided that their terms and conditions of service as to pay shall not be less favourable than those to which they would have been entitled in the posts they held before their transfer."
6. ' The learned Service Tribunal agreed with the argument of the petitioners "that the pay of Rs, 220 fixed in the scale of Additional District and Sessions Judge in addition to N. P. S. 18 is the grade pay as Additional District and Sessions Judge in the nature of a substitute for a separate pay scale and cannot be discontinued". However, referring to Schedule 3 attached to National Scales of Pay Rules, 1974, according to which the posts of Deputy Secretary and Draftsman carry respectively N. P. S. 18 plus Special Pay of Rs, 275 and Rs, 330 per month, the learned Tribunal held that as according to the provisions of section 10 of the Sind Civil Servant Act, 1973, every civil servant is bound to serve in any post, they were entitled to the pay attached to the posts currently held by them. The only protection extended to them, according to the learned tribunal, was that their pay shall not be less than the pay drawn by them in their own cadre, which was not violated in their case as total emoluments drawn by them presently are higher than the pay received by them as Additional District and Sessions Judges. In this view of the matter the learned Tribunal dismissed the appeals filed by the petitioners.
7. Mr. Fakhruddin G. Ebrahim who appeared in support of the petitions submitted that the post of Senior Civil Judge next below that of the Additional District and Sessions Judge carry in the N. P. S. 18 and, therefore, the pay scale of the latter post consisting of N. P. S. 18 plus Special Pay of Rs, 220 is the scale pay attached to the post in order to distinguish and upgrade the same from that of Senior Civil Judge. In the premises he contended that on transfer to the posts in the Civil Secretariat the petitioners were entitled to draw the special pay attached to these posts in addition to the scale pay, already drawn by them as Additional District and Sessions Judges and in adjusting of such special pay with the scale pay already drawn by them would amount to reducing the status and pay of the petitioners. This would further amount, according to the learned counsel, to equating them and placing them in N. P. S. 18 which is the scale attached to the lower post of Senior Civil Judge.
8. ' The contentions raised by the learned counsel are questions of public importance and seem to require consideration. The further question whether the additional pay of Rs, 220 per month embodied in the pay scale attached to the post of Additional district and Sessions Judge can be treated as special pay so as to withhold it in view of the fact that the posts presently held by the petitioners also carry special pay, also requires examination. Leave to appeal is accordingly granted in both petitions.