RailEnquiry

The Madras High Court has struck down as unconstitutional a condition in an order of the Railway Board of February 2009 relating to increasing the pay of Head Clerks. A Division Bench of Justices Elipe Dharma Rao and M. Venugopal said that the order ran contrary to Art.16 (4A) of the Constitution and worked against the interest of SC/STs.The case of A. Geetha was that she joined the Integral Coach Factory (ICF) here in 1986 and was promoted as Senior Clerk and Head Clerk.The petitioner's grievance was that the statutory provision of stepping up of seniors' pay on a par with that of the juniors was deliberately denied to her through the impugned orders.She approached the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) which dismissed the application. Hence she filed the writ petition.Denial of the increased pay on the ground that she was promoted to the post of Head Clerk under the SC quota was against the fundamental right guaranteed to SC/ST candidates under Articles 16 (4A) and (4B) read with Art.21 of the Constitution, the petitioner said.Allowing the writ petition, the Bench said that the denial of the right of promotion guaranteed under the Constitution to SC/ST would amount to illegality. It set aside the CAT order of August 2010.