Judgment:
By Hon'ble Mr. George Paracken, Judicial Member -
The applicant is Fire Officer Grade-II working with the respondents. He is aggrieved by the inaction on the part of the respondents to implement the recommendations of the Pant Committee on categorizing Fire Service Personnel in the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre as Scientific/Technical despite the same having been implemented elsewhere in ISRO itself and such categorization has been in force in Bhaba Atomic Research Centre for the last 25 years. He has, therefore, sought the following relief in this OA:
"I) To declare that the inaction on the part of the respondents to implement the recommendations of the Pant Committee on categorizing Fire Service Personnel in the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre as Scientific/Technical is highly illegal, arbitrary, unjust, unreasonable, irrational and violative of Art 14 and 16 of the Constitution of India.
II) To direct the respondents to implement the recommendations of the Pant Committee on categorizing Fire Service Personnel in the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre as Scientific/Technical with effect from 17.12.93 and to extend the benefits of the same to the applicant with all consequential benefits.
III) Such other relief as may be prayed for and this Tribunal may deem fit to grant.
IV) Grant the cost of this Original Application."
2. The respondents in their reply produced Annexure R-1 copy of the report of the Pant Committee constituted pursuant to the directions of this Tribunal in OA 182 of 1989. The relevant part of the said order is as under: -
"5.3 ISRO Safety Organization has the main responsibility for all activities of safety including designing, planning, commissioning of various fire fighting appliances and equipment including specialized systems. The task presently expected of ISRO fire services is only fire fighting. It is recommended that after the recruitment norms are suitably upgraded and the personnel are appropriately trained, the job content of the fire services personnel may be enriched. Candidates possessing appropriate qualifications such as BE (fire sciences) may be inducted to ISRO safety/fire services organization. When such up gradation of norms and induction of adequately qualified and trained personnel has taken place it should be possible to assign ISRO fire fighting personnel technical work on lines of BARC.
5.4 Classification of Fire Service Personnel as Technical: There is an emerging trend in the country to classify fire service personnel as technical. It was informed by the Fire Adviser, MHA, that the States of Himachal Pradesh, Bihar and Jammu and Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh have already declared their fire service personnel as technical and the proposition is under active consideration in the State of Maharashtra. BARC has already declared their fire services personnel as technical as early as 1983, taking due note of various factors including the important consideration that they had revised the educational level for fireman at entry to SSLC as early as 1975. However, as already stated, in ISRO/DOS the fireman entry Qualification remains at VIII STD even today. Moreover, low educational level at entry stage coupled with employing persons as fireman who had already spent several years in low-level non-technical jobs in ISRO/DOS has hampered their acquiring adequate level of academic/professional skills required for fire fighting. The committee recommends that the fire fighting services in ISRO should be transformed into a new category, viz. Technical support service, with appropriate all-round measures as enumerated in these recommendations. Such a technical support service should continue to satisfy the recommendations made in relation to command hierarchy, medical fitness etc. The committee noted that the formation of such a new technical support service will take some time, and therefore recommends that till such time, the status quo may be maintained in respect of the categorization of ISRO/DOS fire service personnel.
5.5 Considering the need for command structure and to provide avenues for career growth the committee recommends limited flexible complementing in between the pay scales available at each level of ISRO fire services. It may be recalled that similar is t he case in BARC also where limited flexible complementing within each level is effected. The existing scales of pay for different levels of ISRO fire services personnel, and within each level, are given in Table-II below: Table-II
TABLE
The limited flexible complementing within each of the 5 levels mentioned above may be implemented soon. This movement from one scale to another at the same level of hierarchy in ISRO fire services should be based on a criteria of specified number of years of satisfactory service linked to ACR performance, test etc. But the promotion from one level to another should continue to be based on sanctioned strength of posts in view of the requirement of command structure. For example the total strength of sanctioned posts of fireman in the two scales AandB may be specified and then flexibly complemented from A to B. But to become Fireman to Leading Fireman a vacancy of a post would be essential."
3. Considering the aforesaid recommendations the Government of India, Ministry of Space vide office order No. 4/1(1)/91-VI, dated 27th August, 1991 issued necessary direction for implementing the aforesaid recommendations. The relevant part of the said order is as under: -
"3. Accordingly, Secretary, Department of Space appointed a High Level Experts Committee, which considered the matter afresh in all its aspects and submitted its Report. The Department has carefully consideration the recommendations of the Committee and has decided as follows: -
(i) The Command hierarchy principle for the fire fighting service is essential to ensure its effective functioning.
(ii) Keeping in view the present constraints faced by ISRO fire fighting staff because of the lower entry level academic qualifications for undergoing NFSC Courses to improve their career and the need to upgrade the quality of the fire service as a whole, the minimum academic qualification for fireman at entry should be revised as SSLC and correspondingly, the recruitment norms for the higher levels of fire service staff should also be revised. Such up gradation of norms and induction of adequately qualified and trained personnel is an essential requirement to enable assigning ISRO fire fighting personnel technical work on lines of BARC. Eventhough, BARC has declared their fire service personnel as 'technical', taking due note of various factors including the important consideration that they had raised the educational level for fireman at entry to SSLC as early as 1975, the Department has noted that the categorization of staff as a whole is entirely different in BARC as compared to DOS/ISRO and that the term 'technical' in BARC has an altogether different connotation as compared to the term 'Scientific/Technical' in ISRO.
(iii) Considering all the relevant factors including the scope of duties and responsibilities for fire services in ISRO, the Department has decided that status-quo be maintained on categorization of the fire fighting personnel in ISRO.
(iv) Limited flexible complementing (LFC) in between the prescribed scales (given in the Table below) be introduced with effect from the batch as of October 1, 1991. Future reviews will be conducted on an annual basis as of 1st October, every year for all levels.
Table
(v) Movement from one scale to another, within the same level of hierarchy, should be based on a criteria of specified number of years of satisfactory service linked to screening, ACR, on-the-job performance, test, interview, physical fitness and endurance test etc., without the need for a vacancy at the higher grade within the same level. But promotion from one level to another should continue to be based on sanctioned strength of posts in view of the requirement of command structure. For example, the total strength of sanctioned posts of Fireman in the scales 'A' and 'B' will remain fixed and then flexibly complemented from A to B. But for a Fireman to become a Leading Fireman, a vacancy of a post of Leading Fireman would be essential.
(vi) The posts in the lower grade held by persons promoted to the higher grade within the same level under the Limited Flexible Complementing Scheme (LFCS) will be upgraded to the higher grade within the same level, to accommodate their promotion.
(vii) When a vacancy arises in the fire fighting service due to retirement, resignation, death etc., the same will be operated only in the lower grade within the same level.
(viii) All fire fighting persons should be subjected to Annual Medical examination for physical fitness and endurance."
4. The revised entry and promotion norms Annexure R-2 attached to the said office memorandum with regard to the Fire Officer-I is as under:-
5. As per the revised entry and promotion norms, the respondents issued Annexure A-1 notification inviting applications for the post of Fire Officer-I in the pay scale of Rs. 2200-75-2800-EB-100-4000/-. The educational qualification prescribed was B.Sc. (PCM), Advanced Diploma from National Fire Service College, Nagpur (Divisional Officer's Course) with 6 years experience as Station Officer or B.E. (Fire Engineering) with 6 years experience as Station Officer. Applicant having the educational qualification of BE Fire Engineering from the National Fire Service College, Nagpur was appointed as Fire Officer-I and joined the post on 17.12.1993. Thereafter he was promoted as Fire Officer-II in October 2002. The post of Fire Officer is treated as Administrative-Auxiliary. The applicant is holding Fire Officer-II and there is no further promotional avenues. All the technical benefits, allowances, compensations that are given to Scientists/Engineers are denied to him because of treating him as Administrative-Auxiliary.
6. The applicant has, therefore, filed Annexure A-3 representation dated 30.11.2004 stating that his nature of work in safety and fire service division is technical and he is taking care of maintenance and all other technical matters related to the fire protection systems in VSSC. But, unfortunately, despite his technical qualifications and technical responsibility, he is treated as an administrative staff. This affects his career growth and other benefits. He has therefore, requested in his representation that the post of Fire Officer be treated as technical in view of the technical qualification and technical nature of work performed by him. The respondents vide Annexure A-4 memorandum dated 31.3.2005 informed him that as per the extent orders on the subject professional update allowance is payable only to Scientists/Engineers in the scale of pay of Rs. 8000-13500/- and above who Are pursuing Scientific/Technical works and the same is being paid to attract and to retain them in DOS/ISRO. In DOS/ISRO the post of Fire Officer Comes under the category of Administrative/Auxiliary service and therefore, the applicant is not entitled for grant of professional update allowance.
7. The respondents in their reply has submitted that Fire Service personnel in all ISRO centres are categorized under Administrative/Auxiliary service, including in VSSC. Considering the nature of the job carried out by the fire service personnel, which is different from that of the core group, they cannot be equated with the Scientific and Technical Personnel working in the core and as the services of the Fire Service personnel are limited to fire fighting and its related safety aspects, it can only be considered as an auxiliary service to the core RandD activities of the centre. The applicant was inducted as Fire Officer-I through Annexure A-1 advertisement for which the required qualification was B.Sc (PCM), Advanced Diploma (Divisional Officer's Course) from National Fire Service College, Nagpur with six years experience as Station Officer or BE (Fire Engineering) with six years experience as Station Officer. The fact that applicant possesses BE (Fire Engineering) does not bestow upon him any right to be considered as a Scientific/Technical person as the services being carried out are only auxiliary in nature. At the time of joining the centre, he was well aware of the career prospects in the centre. As the nature of job of the Fire Service personnel and other Scientific/Technical personnel are different from each other, they form distinct classes. Therefore, the classification of fire service personnel as a different class does not violate the principles of Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution on the principles of intelligible differentia.
8. We have heard the learned counsel for the parties. We have noticed that the Pant Committee has recommended that the fire fighting services in ISRO should be transformed into a new category, viz. technical support service, with appropriate all-round measures as enumerated in the recommendations. Such a technical support service should continue to satisfy the recommendations made in relation to command hierarchy, medical fitness etc. The committee noted that the formation of such a new technical support service will take some time, and therefore, recommended that till such time, the status quo may be maintained in respect of the categorization of ISRO/DOS fire service personnel. The aforesaid recommendation was submitted on March 1991. It was thereafter that the applicant was appointed as Fire Officer. We consider that with the appointment of the applicant who is a technically qualified person as a Fire Officer the respondents has taken first step for the implementation of the recommendation of the Pant Committee. However, the respondents have not taken any further action on the recommendation of the Pant Committee for the last two decades. They are still continuing with the categorization of fire service personnel without having it reviewed. The Pant Committee itself has noticed as early as in 1983 that the Bhaba Atomic Research Center has already declared their fire service personnel as technical, taking due note of various factors including the important consideration that they had revised the educational level for fireman at entry to SSLC as early as in 1975. Such being the position, we consider it appropriate that the 2nd respondent should review the position and take a conscious decision as to whether their Fire fighting services should be transformed into a technical support service as recommended by the Pant Committee and the personnel can be termed as technical staff so that qualified persons like the applicant would get career advancements and other facilities like the technical personals of the department. Hence, we dispose of this OA with the direction accordingly.
9. No order as to costs.