The Supreme Court on Monday reiterated that even if the nature of work may be more or less the same, the scale of pay may vary based on academic qualification or experience which justifies classification.
Relying on the judgment in Director of Elementary Education, Odisha and Others vs. Pramod Kumar Sahoo, the court further held that inequality of men in different groups excludes applicability of the principle of ‘equal pay for equal work’ to them.
These observations were made by the Supreme Court while allowing an appeal filed by the Union of India challenging an order passed by a single judge, allowing the writ petition and holding that the original writ petitioners were entitled to Nursing Allowance.
In the case before the Court, the original writ petitioners were working as the Nursing Assistants in various hospitals under the establishment of Border Security Force (BSF) and all of them were being paid the ‘Hospital Patient Care Allowance’. According to them, they were entitled to the Nursing Allowance like the Staff Nurse.
This claim was opposed by the BSF, containing inter alia that the writ petitioners were being paid the special allowance known as ‘Hospital Patient Care Allowance’ and were not entitled to the Nursing Allowance at par with Staff Nurses as they were not qualified as a Staff Nurse.
A bench of Justices Shah and Ravikumar considered a short question, i.e., whether in a case where the educational qualifications for the post of Nursing Assistant and Staff Nurse were different, still the Nursing Assistants shall be entitled to the Nursing Allowance at par with the Staff Nurses?
“The High Court has taken the view that the educational qualifications cannot be a ground for denial of Nursing Allowance at par with the Staff Nurse who can also be said to be an integral part of the nursing service in general. The view taken by the High Court is just contrary to the decisions of this Court in the case of Punjab State Cooperative Milk Producers Federation Limited (supra), Pramod Kumar Sahoo (supra) and T.V.L.N. Mallikarjuna Rao (supra)…”, the Supreme Court observed.
Allowing the appeal filed by Union of India, the Court held, “The Nursing Assistants in the BSF neither have relevant experience for appointment as Staff Nurse nor they possess any educational qualification for appointment as Staff Nurse. Therefore, the case of Nursing Assistants cannot be compared with that of the Staff Nurses as both carry different educational qualification. Under the circumstances, the High Court has committed a serious error in holding and directing that the Nursing Assistants serving in the Assam Rifles/BSF are entitled to Nursing Allowance at par with the Staff Nurses”
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