' Vide its circular letter, dated 21-1-1988 (Annexure A), Finance Department, Government of the Punjab (i,e, respondent No, 2) placed the following technical posts in different departments (minimum qualification for initial recruitment to such posts being graduation) in BPS-11 (if already in lower scale) with Selection Grade @ of 33% in BPS-15 with effect from 1-12-1987:--
(i) "Statistical Assistants.
(ii) Economic Assistants.
(iii) Research Assistants.
(iv) Project Assistants. .(v) Fisheries Assistants.
(vi) Fisheries Development Assistants.
(vii) Assistant Warden of Fisheries..
(viii) Statistics Investigators and etc."
' The appellant who was working as Librarian in the Labour Department in BPS-10 sought for the grant of BPS-11 vide his representation, dated 4-4-1990 (Annexure E) on the ground that he held a post which was a technical one and for which minimum qualification of graduation had been prescribed in the relevant service rules. He was, therefore, entitled to BPS-11 in the light of the Finance Departments circular letter, referred to above. The said scale was prescribed with effect from 1-12-1987 according to the said notification. However, when the matter was taken up with the Finance Department, the said department agreed to allow BPS-11 to the appellant with immediate effect vide Notification, dated 9-3-1991 (Annexure F). The appellant again represented on 16-1-1991 (Annexure G) for the grant of BPS-11 with effect from 1-12-1987 as was allowed for similar technical posts vide F.D's. Notification, dated 21-1-1988. The request was, however, turned down vide F.D's. Advice, dated 26-12-1991, conveyed by the Labour Department to the appellant on 17-6-1992. The appellant submitted departmental representation to the Governor, Punjab on 29-6-1992 and finding no response to it, filed the instant appeal before this Tribunal under section 4 of the Punjab'
Civil Servants Tribunals Act, 1974, on 13-10-1992, of course on time.
2. In the course of his arguments, the learned counsel for the appellant reiterated the grounds of appeal taken by him in the memo. Of the instant appeal. The crux of his arguments was that BPS-11 had been prescribed with effect from 1-12-1987 for all the technical posts (in pay scales lower than BPS-11) for which minimum qualification of graduation had been prescribed in the relevant service rules. According to him, the post of Librarian, Labour Department held by the appellant appeared at Serial No, 13, page 4 .Of the Schedule appended to the Punjab Labour Department Service Rules, 1987 (Annexure B). According to said Schedule, the post of Librarian could be filled up by initial recruitment from amongst the graduates from a recognised university with a certificate in Library Science; that there were certain other technical posts as well in the Labour Department for which graduation was the basic/minimum qualification e.g. Statistical Assistants and Research Assistants which had come within the purview of the F.D's. Notification, dated 21-1-1988 under which BPS-11 with selection grade in BPS-15 at the given percentage had been prescribed with effect from 1-12-1987. According to the learned counsel, the post of Librarian, like the abovementioned two posts of Statistical Assistants and Research Assistants in the Labour Department formed part of the feeding cadre for the post of Assistant Labour Officer and that BPS-11 and Selection Grade in BPS-15 could not be denied to its incumbent once it was allowed in the case of the incumbents of the posts of Statistical Assistants and Research Assistants. He referred to Serial No,8 of page 3 of the Schedule (ibid) to prove his point. The relevant provision of the said Schedule provides 100% recruitment to the post of Assistant Labour Officer by promotion as under:-- "(i) 90% by promotion on the basis of seniority-cum-fitness from amongst Labour Inspectors in the functional unit with at least 3 years' service as such;
(ii) 10% by promotion on the basis of seniority-cum-fitness from amongst Investigators, Statistical Assistants and Legal Assistants, Librarians and Research Assistants in the functional unit with at least 5 years service as such."
' Learned counsel exhorted that it was precisely in view of the above provisions of Rules that the incumbents of the above posts in Labour Department formed part of a single cadre for which seniority list was circulated on 31-1-1988 (Annexure C page 23). The appellant was borne at Serial No, 5 of the said list while the incumbents of the posts of Statistical Assistants and Research Assistants (specifically allowed BPS-11 and Selection Grade BPS-15 by Finance Department) were shown at Serial Nos.3, 4 and 8 (Statistical Assistants) and at Serial Nos. 1 and 2 (Research Assistants). According to him, therefore, there could be no valid reason to deny the benefit of BPS-11 to the appellant from 1-12-1987 or to refuse the grant of Selection Grade BPS-15 to him on the basis of the formula prescribed in Finance Department's letter, dated 21-1-1988.
3. Learned counsel asserted that by allowing BPS-11 to the appellant with effect from the date of order i,e, 9-3-1991 when it was prescribed for such other technical posts with effect from 1-12-1987 and by not allowing Selection Grade (BPS-15) for the post of Librarian, the appellant had been subjected to invidious discrimination. He, therefore, urged that the impugned order be set aside and the appellant allowed BPS-11 and Selection Grade BPS-15 @ 33% of the posts with effect from 1- 12-1987.
4. Appearing on behalf of the respondents, learned District Attorney mainly relied on the written objections to controvert the arguments of the learned counsel for the appellant. The substance of his arguments was that the duties and responsibilities of the post of Librarian were altogether different from those prescribed for such posts as Statistical Assistants, Economic Assistants, Research Assistants, Project Assistants, Fisheries Assistants, Fisheries Development Assistants, Assistant Warden of Fisheries,. Statistical Investigators etc. He asserted that the abovementioned posts were research-oriented. Therefore, the appellant could not be treated at par with them. He also controverted the argument that the respondents had shown discrimination towards the appellant by refusing him BPS-11 from 1-12-1987 while incumbents of the other technical posts were allowed BPS-11 from the aforesaid date. He maintained that Finance Department had not included the post of Librarian in the original notification and the appellant had no legal claim to seek the benefit with retrospective effect, that he could avail it only prospectively with effect from the date it was allowed by the respondents through Notification dated 9-3-1991.
5. I have carefully considered the arguments advanced by learned counsel for the appellant as also the views expressed by the learned District Attorney on behalf of the respondents. The fact that the Finance Department itself agreed to extend the benefit of BPS-11 to the appellant shows that the Finance Department had agreed to treat the post of Librarian as a technical one for which BPS-11 could be allowed. For the other technical posts for which similar qualifications were prescribed, BPS-11 had already been allowed with effect from 1-12-1987 i,e, the date from which Pay Revision Rules of the year 1987 were promulgated. The subject of the circular letter, dated 21-1-1988 (Annexure A) itself confirms the fact that BPS-11 had been allowed for technical/posts with graduation as minimum qualification for recruitment thereto in the wake of pay package introduced from 1-12-1987. The respondents could not have, therefore, denied the same benefit to the Librarian of the Labour Department from 1-12-1987 merely because they had realised their omission only when it was pointed out to them. Moreover, the appellant was borne on a cadre which included the posts of Statistical Assistants and Research Assistants as well. How could the Librarian be picked up for a discrimination which on the face of it appears to be crude, in the context of the given situation in which he had been placed in the Labour Department. Similarly, Selection Grade is prescribed as a compensation for inadequate chances of promotion. The post of Librarian in the Labour Department held by the appellant is, like the Statistical Assistants and Research Assistants, included in the feeding cadre for the purposes of promotion as Assistant Labour Officer. That being so, how could the grant of Selection Grade (as a compensation for inadequate chances of promotion) be denied to him but allowed to the incumbents of the other posts on the same cadre? The decision taken by the Finance Department, therefore, suffers from an inherent contradiction and complete lack of appreciation of the facts of the case.
6. The real mischief lies in the generalisation couched in the circular letter, dated 21-1-1988 as also in its ending with the words "and etc." and the Finance should not, therefore, grudge the natural consequences of such an indulgence. It is indeed true that the work of Librarian, however, technical it might be, is distinguishable in terms of duties and responsibilities from the posts of Statistical Assistants, Research Assistants and Legal Assistants with which it was bracketed in the relevant service rules. The best course would be that all the posts of Librarians in the various departments in Punjab should be lumped together and brought on one cadre for promotion on an all Punjab basis through the Administrative control of the Directorate of Libraries, Punjab. That is the only way in which uniform scales and selection grade could have been prescribed for the Librarians and their lower formations comprising Library Officers, Library Assistants etc. And their prospects of promotion enhanced to attract youngmen to join a field without whose riches an educational system could not be pragmatically conceived/visualised. For so long as we continue to provide Library Assistants to contend for promotion as Assistant Labour Officer and such other posts in the field with executive administrative attributes unlike Librarian who in his perfect conception of job would assume the role of a research worker and a guide in the research work, and to deny him the singular place, pay and perquisite to which he would actually be entitled, we should not visualise any tangible improvement in our Libraries network. It is time that the Libraries are administratively brought under unitary control of a given department and manned by the Librarian, duly qualified and appropriately paid through a reasonable package of pay and perquisites.
7. In view of the foregoing discussion, I allow the appeal, set aside the immigned order and direct that the appellant shall be entitled to the benefit of BPS-11 and Selection Grade (@ 33% of the posts on the cadre) in BPS-15 with effect from 1-12-1987, as envisaged vide Finance Department's Circular Letter No, FD-PC-3-1/83-P-IV, dated 21-1-1988 (Annexure A) and shall be entitled to pay fixation with arrears of pay accordingly.
8. The parties shall bear their own costs.