Equal pay only when persons similar in all respects: SC

The Supreme Court has held that the doctrine of equal pay for equal work is applicable only among persons similarly situated in all respects, and principle of equality will have no application where the persons are not similarly situated or when there is a valid classification based on a reasonable differentia.

The Bench comprising Justices S B Sinha and H S Bedi ruled that such a doctrine cannot be applied in a vaccum as the Constitutional scheme postulates equal pay for equal work for those who are equally placed in all respects, and possession of a higher qualification is a valid basis for classification of two categories of employees.

The ruling came on an appeal filed by the Centre against an order of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), which had asked it to reconsider the pay scale of Mahajabeen Akhtar working with the National Gallery of Modern Art as an assitant librarian.

Earlier, she was working as a research assistant in Urdu language and she was redeployed when the Urdu Promotion Bureau wound up. She had sought parity with the research assistants working in other organisations as the Fifth Pay Commission had put employees from her category in a lesser scale as compared to the research assistants working in other organisations.