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TMI Blog1979 (8) TMI 214X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... 6 and 4391 of 1978. This group consists of Engineers, Overseers, Teachers, Sub-divisional Clerks, Clerks, Accounts Clerks, Time-keepers, Research Assistants, Store-keepers, Meter Readers, Daughtsmen, Tracers and Steno- typists. In these five Writ Petitions orders of retrenchment were proposed to be passed against the petitioners but those orders have been stayed by this Court during the pendency of the Writ Petitions. In Writ Petition No. 565 of 1979, there are 158 petitioners amongst whom are Shift Engineers, Line Superintendents and Sectional Officers. The 375 petitioners in the remaining three Writ Petitions Nos. 4505, 4536 and 4658 of 1978 are work-charged employees. The petitioners in these three Writ Petitions have already been retrenched. They are industrial employees and there is an Award of 1974 by which their rights have been adjudicated upon. We will deal with the petitions of work-charged employees separately. Their cases stand on an altogether different footing from those of other employees. Our reference to the petitioners' immediately hereinafter will mean petitioners other than work charged employees. Before examining the petitioners' contentions, it i ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... included the Bhakra Dam, the Nangal Dam, certain irrigation headworks, power houses and sub-stations. By section 79(2), the B. M. Board consists of (a) a whole-time Chairman and two whole-time members to be appointed by the Central Government; (b) a representative each of the Governments of the States of Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan and the Union Territory of Himachal Pradesh to be nominated by the respective Governments or Administrator, as the case may be; and (c) two representatives of the Central Government to be nominated by that Government. By Section 79(3), the functions of the B. M. Board include (a) the regulation of the supply of water from the Bhakra-Nangal Project to the States of Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan; (b) the regulation of the supply of power to any Electricity Board or other authority in charge of the distribution of power; (c) the construction of such of the remaining works connected with the Right Bank Power House as the Central Government may, specify, and (d) such other functions as the Central Government may, after consultation with the Governments of the States of Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan, entrust to it. Sub-section (4) of section 79 gives to the ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ted after the appointed day may be transferred by the Central Government to the Bhakra Management Board constituted under section 79, whereupon the provisions of that section shall apply as if it were a work included in sub-section (1) of that section. By sub-section (6), the Bhakra Management Board constituted under section 79 is to be renamed as the Bhakra Beas Management Board when any of the components of the Beas Project is transferred under sub-section (5). The Beas Construction Board is to cease to exist when all the components of the Beas Project have been so transferred. Thus, Part VIII of the Punjab Reorganisation Act provides for the constitution and prescribes the functions and powers of three different Boards : (1) The Bhakra Management Board, (2) The Beas Construction Board and (3) The Bhakra Beas Management Board. For brevity, these Boards, are mostly referred to in this judgment as the B.M. Board, the B.C. Board and the B.B.M. Board respectively. The B.M. Board and the B.C. Board were constituted on October 1, 1967. The B.M. Board was renamed as B.B.M. Board on May 15, 1976 when two components of the Beas Project, the Bhatinda- Sangrur Transmission Line and the P ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... titioners further contend that they and the employees of the various State Governments who had come on deputation in connection with the Beas-Sutlej Project were discharging similar duties and were clothed with similar responsibilities. The petitioners, no less than the deputationists, had rendered service to the satisfaction of their employers and therefore they could not be discriminated against in the matter of continuing in their present employment. The policy initiated by the Government of India under which it was decided to retain the deputationists in service and retrench direct recruits like the petitioners is, according to the petitioners, violative of the guarantee of equality contained in Article 14 of the Constitution. In any event, so the petitioners contend, they cannot be removed from service while officers junior to them and less qualified than them who had come on deputation from other States are retained in service. On these grounds the petitioners pray by their Writ Petitions that (a) the decision of the Central Government to retrench the petitioners from service be quashed; (b) respondents be directed to retain the petitioners in service in the Beas Project a ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... her the petitioners are employees of the Central Government. Whereas the petitioners contend that they are, learned Solicitor General contends on behalf of the Union Government that the petitioners were appointed either by the Beas Control Board or by the Beas Construction Board, depending on whether the appointments were made prior to or after November 1, 1966, that the Central Government had no power or authority to make appointments to these two Boards, that the appointments of the petitioners were made by one or the other Board expressly for a temporary period and for the specific purpose of completing the works of the Beas Project and that on completion of those works the petitioners cannot become the employees of the Central Government. These rival submissions require an examination of the provisions of the Punjab Reorganisation Act on which both sides rely in support of their contentions, but before that, it is necessary to state that the offers of appointment were made to the petitioners mostly by the Executive Engineer or the S.D.O., Administration, on behalf of the Superintending Engineer, Department of Construction, Beas Dam, Talwara Township. These offers were accept ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... by sub-section (2) of section 80 to constitute the Beas Construction Board. The notification constituting that Board may empower the Board, as provided in sub-section (3) of section 80, to appoint such staff as may be necessary for the efficient discharge of its functions. The first proviso to sub-section (3) is also important and may be extracted fully: Provided that every person who immediately before the constitution of the Board was engaged in the construction or any work relating to the Beas Project shall continue to be so employed by the Board in connection with the said works on the same terms and conditions of service as were applicable to him before such constitution until the Central Government by order directs otherwise . By sub-section (5) any component of the Beas Project in relation to which the construction has been completed after November 1, 1966 may be transferred by the Central Government to the Bhakra Management Board constituted under section 79 and thereupon the provisions of section 79 become applicable as if a work transferred to the Bhakra Management Board were included in subsection (1) of section 79. Sub- section (6) of section 80 provides that ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... Beas Project was to be undertaken by the Central Government on behalf of the successor States and the State of Rajasthan. But the direct and immediate responsibility to construct and complete works of the Beas Project was imposed by the statute on the Central Government and not on the successor States and the State of Rajasthan. Under the proviso to section 80(1), the Governments of these States are only under an obligation to provide the necessary funds to the Central Government for meeting the expenditure on the Beas Project, including the expenses of the Beas Construction Board in behalf of the discharge of its functions under sub-section (1) . The Central Government is empowered by section 80(2) (a) to constitute the Beas Construction Board with such members as it may deem fit and to assign to that Board such functions as it may consider necessary . In the light of these provisions, we find no substance in the contention of the Union Government that the petitioners are employees of the Beas Construction Board and not of the Central Government. The constitution of the Beas Construction Board is a matter of administrative expediency provided for by section 80(2), in order ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... t is a matter to be decided by the appointing authority having regard to the various circumstances mentioned therein. No Government servant can claim entitlement to a declaration that he is in quasi-permanent service, because the question as to whether he is entitled to such a declaration does not depend upon the mere fact of his being in service for a particular number of years. We cannot therefore grant to the petitioners this particular relief. We would however like to make it clear that if by reason of being in the temporary service of the Government of India, any benefit like terminal gratuity or death- gratuity provided for in the rules of 1965 accrues in favour of the petitioners, it will be open to them to make n representation in that behalf to the appropriate authorities. We have no doubt that if the petitioners are entitled to any benefit under the rules of 1965 by reason of the fact that they are in the temporary service of the Government of India, the concerned authorities will not deny that benefit to them. It is however not possible for us to consider the question sought to be raised by the petitioners in regard to the benefits to which they are said to be entitle ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... d to the benefit of that proviso. A branch of the same argument is that under section 80(S), components of the Beas Project the construction of which has been completed after November 1, 1966 have to be transferred to the Bhakra Management Board and thereupon the provisions of section 79 come into operation as if the transferred works were included in clauses (a) to (g) of section 79(1). It is urged that if any completed component of the Beas Project is transferred to the Bhakra Management Board as required by section 80(S), as has been done in the present case on May 15, 1976, the petitioners would become the employees of the Bhakra Management Board, since the work in connection with which they were employed is transferred to that Board. There is no warrant for this submission because, though section 80(5) requires a completed work of the Beas Project to be transferred to the Bhakra Management Board, it does not provide that persons who were employed in connection with such a work should also be transferred as employees of the Bhakra Management Board. In the very nature of things there could be no such provision because if any persons were employed for the Beas Project only, th ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e, no discrimination can be made against them in the matter of continuation in employment. They cannot be retrenched from service and the Deputationists allowed to take their place. If at all there has to be retrenchment consequent upon the completion of works of the Beas Project, the Deputationists must be retrenched along with the petitioners, so that the senior employees in the two categories will be retained in service. Wholesale retrenchment of one category of employees, the direct recruits here, to the exclusion of the other category, the Deputationists, brings about Elegant inequality between the two and is hostile discrimination against the former. We see no substance in the grievance of the petitioners that the proposed orders of retrenchment involve violation of the guarantee of equality in the matter of their employment. It is of the essence of the right of equality that equals must be treated alike. In other words, some amongst equals cannot be subjected to hostile discrimination by giving favoured treatment to others who are similarly situated. The difficulty in accepting the petitioners' contention in regard to discrimination is that they and the Deputationists ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... nt Board consists of, inter alia, a representative each of the Governments of the States of Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and the then Union Territory of Himachal Pradesh. The State of Punjab, the successor States and the State of Rajasthan are thus directly interested in the successful working of the Bhakra- Nangal Scheme, being its immediate beneficiaries. Since they are also under an obligation to provide the necessary funds to meet all expenses of the B.M. Board, including the salaries and allowances of its staff, the Governments of these States want their own employees to be posted on deputation for service under that Board. Thus, the petitioners are employees of the Central Government while the Deputationists are employees of the respective State Governments. The terms and conditions of the petitioners' appointments provide for the termination of their employment by one month's notice cr pay in lieu of notice. Their services are also liable to be terminated on completion of the Beas Project for which they were employed. The rights and liabilities of the Deputationists flow from the terms of their service under the State Governments. On completion of the works of the B ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... emed to be in quasi- permanent service under rule 3. We are further of the opinion that the petitioners have no right to be transferred to the services of the Bhakra Management Board, now re-named as the Bhakra Beas Management Board. Lastly, the proposed retrenchment of the petitioners does not offend against the guarantee of equality contained in articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution, since the petitioners and the Deputationists belong to two different and distinct classes. Before parting with the cases of these petitioners, we would like to record the assurance given by the learned Solicitor General on behalf of the Government of India that while retrenching the petitioners, the 'last come, first go' rule will be applied inter se amongst the petitioners and further, that if and when any direct recruitments are made to the posts under the Bhakra Beas Management Board, preference in those appointments will be given to the petitioners, if they are retrenched. We will now proceed to deal with Writ Petitions Nos. 4505, 4536 and 4658 of 1978 in which the petitioners are all work-charged employees. A work-charged establishment broadly means an establishment of which th ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ll the 12 unions of which the work-charged employees are members were parties to the said conciliation proceedings. By reason of section 18(3)(d) of the Industrial Disputes Act, a settlement arrived at in the course of a conciliation proceeding is binding on all persons who were employed in the establishment to which the dispute relates, whether they were employed on the date of the dispute or subsequently. In Ramnagar Cane and Sugar Co. Ltd. v. Jatin Chakravorty and ors., it was held by this Court that it is not even necessary, in order to bind the work men to the settlement arrived at before the conciliator, to show that they belonged to the union which took part in the conciliation proceedings, since the policy underlying section 18 of the Act is to give an extended operation to such settlements. In the instant case, all the 12 unions which represented the workmen on the work-charged establishment were parties to the conciliation proceedings. The settlement will therefore bind all the work-charged employees. Apart from the settlement in the conciliation proceedings, an award was made by the Industrial Tribunal, Central, Chandigarh, in Reference No. 2-C of 1971, in an industri ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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