Rakhi Punga vs State of H.P. and Others

Deepak Gupta, J.—By means of this petition, the Petitioner who is working as Secretary in the Nagar Panchayat Chawari, District Chamba, has prayed for the grant of the following amongst other reliefs:

i) That the recruitment and promotion policy for the promotion of Secretary be declared ultra virus to the Constitution of India.

ii) That the applicant be granted two advance increments for holding higher education.

iii) That the applicant be granted appointed from 4.1.1999 as in the case of Executive Officers.

The case of the Petitioner is that recruitment to the post of Secretaries of Nagar Panchayat and Executive Officers in the case of Municipal Council are governed by similar rules. The Petitioner claims that since the rules are similar and qualifications provided for both the posts are identical, they both should be placed in the same scale of pay. This contention is totally without merit.

The classification of Nagar Panchayat and Municipal Council area are defined in Section 3(1)(i) & 3(1)(ii) of the H.P. Municipal Act, 1994 which reads as follows:

3(1) There shall be constituted three classes of municipalities in accordance with the provisions of this section as specified below:

(i) "Nagar Panchayat" for a transitional area with population exceeding two thousand and generating annual revenue exceeding rupees five lakhs for the local administration;

(ii) "Municipal Council" for a smaller urban area with population exceeding five thousand and generating the annual revenue exceeding rupees twenty lakhs for the local administration.

It is thus obvious that the Nagar Panchayat has jurisdiction only over a smaller urban area known as transitional area. Nagar Panchayats are meant for those areas where the population is between 2,000 to 5,000. If the population exceeds 5,000 and is upto 50,000 then a municipal council will function. It is thus obvious that the executive officer of the municipal council has much bigger responsibilities to face. Therefore, there can be no parity of pay between Secretaries and Executive Officers because Secretaries are appointed in the Nagar Panchayats and Executive Officers in the Municipal Councils. It would be pertinent to mention that the posts of Executive Officers are filled in from two sources. 50% from direct recruitment and 50% by promotion from amongst Secretaries. Therefore, the Petitioner cannot claim equality with Executive Officer. As such, her request that she be granted date of appointment as 4.1.1999 cannot be also accepted.

The last contention of the Petitioner that she should be granted two extra increments for having higher qualifications cannot be accepted in view of the fact that there is no provision in this regard under the Municipal Act or the rules framed thereunder.

In view of the aforesaid discussion, there is no merit in the petition. The same is accordingly dismissed. No order as to costs.