The Punjab and Haryana High Court has upheld minimum pay-scale protection for a Chandigarh Administration employee who performed Class-IV duties on a part-time basis for more than two decades.
The administration had extended the same benefit to nearly all comparable workers but challenged the tribunal’s order granting it to the remaining employee. The Court held that similarly situated workers cannot be treated differently without a rational distinction.
Although the employee worked six hours rather than the eight hours expected of regular staff, his duties were essential and long-standing. The judgment applies pay parity as a rule against selective exclusion and rejects an attempt to preserve benefits for one group while withholding them from an equivalent worker.
