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Delhi high court issues show causes to navy, army and air chiefs

The Delhi high court on Tuesday issued show cause notices to the ministries of finance and defence, and the chiefs of air, naval and army staff on a petition which sought a review of the Fifth Pay Commission recommendations.

The petition, filed by a flying officer, highlighted the disparity which the recommendations created between the wages of the technical staff and pilots.

A division bench comprising acting Chief Justice Mahinder Narain and Justice S K Mahajan directed the parties to file their replies on January 28, the next day of hearing.

Besides, the bench in an oral direction restrained the defence ministry and the air force to take any disciplinary action against the petitioner for expressing his grievance.

Rakesh Tikku, the counsel for the defence ministry and air force, received the notice for his clients and assured that no action would be taken against the air force official.

The court also took strong note of the manner in which defence officials, who expressed discontent about the recommendations, were either being court martialled or transferred to high-altitude areas.

''The practice is not fair,'' the bench observed.

The counsel for the petitioner stated that though the basic salaries of the pilots and the ground staff were same, the allowance of Rs 7,800 to Rs 11,000 made a difference of almost 100 per cent in their wages. Even the junior most pilot would get paid more than a very senior ground official, he said.

The counsel urged the court to direct the government to review the recommendations in relation to the armed forces after conducting a detailed study and considering the representations of all branches.

He urged the court to issue a writ directing the defence ministry to reconsider the organisational structure of the Indian Air Force, keeping in view promotion prospects, avenues and career planning of ground duty officers. The ministry should also take necessary steps to revive their morale.

Soon after the Pay Commission recommendations, several officers had moved a statutory application before the defence ministry under section 27 of the Air Force Act expressing their grievances about the wage disparity. Besides moving the application before their commanding officer, they had sent a copy directly to the ministry.

Taking strong exception to this, the air headquarters issued them show cause notices asking why disciplinary action should not be taken against them.

The officers responded that no disciplinary action could be taken against them under the rules. The reason for sending a copy to the ministry, they said, was that several such applications were never forwarded by air headquarters.

Following this, several officers were posted to high-altitude areas, according to the petitioner.

It was alleged that the IAF has resorted to punitive measures, not even specifying the period of posting and, in some cases, the nature of assignment to some officers.

Justice Usha Mehra, before whom petitions of over 40 ground officers came up seeking to remove the wage disparity, had converted them as public interest petitions.

The petitioner alleged that right from the IAF's inception, there has been disparity in service conditions -- including promotion, posting and allowances -- of the ground crew and pilots.

Over the years this disparity has increased manifold. The Pay Commission's recommendations were the last straw which brought the dissensions out into the open, ground officials say.

UNI

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