Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, Oct 20: Holding that higher studies pursued without official permission do not entitle the Government employee to salary under Civil Service Regulations, the High Court has allowed the plea of Government challenging Tribunal order whereby authorities were directed to pay salary to aggrieved medicos for the period they have undergone higher studies.
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The Government through Commissioner/Secretary to Health and Medical Education Department challenged the judgment passed by the Central Administrative Tribunal whereby the Tribunal has allowed the plea of two medicos and directed the authorities to pay them salary along with allowances attached to the post of Assistant Surgeon and Medical Officer for the period they were undergoing postgraduate medical courses in the concerned Government Medical College.
The Division Bench of the High Court comprising Justice Sanjeev Kumar and Justice Sanjay Parihar held that Post-Graduate studies pursued without official deputation or permission do not entitle Government employees to salary under Article 44-A of J&K Civil Service Regulations.
“We would like to impress upon the Government to ensure compliance and put in place a proper mechanism to regulate such cases. They shall also ensure that in the cases where an employee or doctor abandons his services and remains unauthorizedly absent even for pursuing higher courses of study beneficial to his/her job is treated as delinquent employee and proceeded in disciplinary proceedings”, the court directed.
Such employees, the court added who are undergoing higher courses at the time of their appointment or selected subsequently for such courses, may apply to the employer for permission to undergo these courses, which shall be governed by the mechanism to be put in place by the Government, as directed by the court.
“It would mitigate the difficulties of such employees and also foster discipline in service. This is an issue, on which an urgent call is required to be taken by the Government. For the foregoing reasons, we find merit in this petition and the same is, accordingly, allowed. The impugned judgment passed by the Tribunal is set aside”, read the judgment.
The Tribunal had come to the conclusion that the case of these doctors squarely fell under Article 44-A of the Regulations of 1956 and, therefore, they were entitled to salary and allowances attached to the post of Assistant Surgeon and Medical Officer even for the period they were undergoing their Post-Graduate courses in the concerned Government Medical College.
The authorities have assailed the CAT judgment on the ground that the Tribunal did not appreciate that the delinquent medicos, after having performed the ritual of submitting joining reports, had abandoned their services without permission of the employer and pursued their postgraduate courses in the concerned Government Medical College and therefore, they were not entitled to the benefit of pay and allowances attached to the post of Assistant Surgeon and Medical Officer for the period of their unauthorized absence and that the provisions of Article 44-A of the Regulations of 1956 were not attracted in the case.
The bench clarified the essence of Article 44-A and said, the Tribunal has not reproduced Article 44-A in its entirety and has picked up only a part of it for the reasons, which are not discernible from the judgment impugned.
“The Article 44-A would be attracted only where a Government servant is deputed to receive trainings and instructive courses in the Training Schools, Colleges, Institutions within the State provided such training/instructive courses are connected with their immediate and current job profile only and do not form an essential qualification either for holding a post to which the Government servant stands appointed or for promotion to the next higher post”, the court clarified.
The court said, Article 44-A clearly exclude from the applicability of the Article to the courses of study in a specialty and subject consisting of higher studies or specialized training in professional or technical subject lasting beyond eight weeks.
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