Patna: In a verdict on the rights of a daily wager who was later appointed as a regular employee of the state govt, Patna High Court has held that the state, being a “constitutional employer”, cannot “balance its budget” by stripping service benefits of employees who worked for decades in various departments.A single bench of Justice Kumar Manish allowed a writ petition filed by Bipin Kumar Verma, a typist initially engaged on daily wages under the state’s water resources department (WRD) in Samastipur district, and quashed the departmental order under which his salary was reduced by treating him as a fresh recruit.Justice Manish directed the department head to take a fresh and “reasoned” decision within three months on Verma’s pay protection and pension rights, which were denied to him.The verdict was passed on Tuesday and was made public through the high court website on Wednesday.Verma started working as a typist on daily wages at the WRD’s flood control office in Samastipur in 1980 and continued in the capacity for nearly three decades. He fought a long legal battle in the high court for regularisation of his service from 1998 to 2011, which resulted in his regular appointment as a lower division clerk (LDC) in the same department on Dec 5, 2012.However, his monthly basic salary was reduced from Rs 9,840 to Rs 7,730, resulting in a reduction in monetary benefits such as dearness allowance, provident fund, pension and other retirement benefits.Calling the disparity arbitrary and a violation of fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution, the high court termed the state’s actions “exploitative” and “discriminatory”. The verdict also observed that decades of dedicated public service could not be treated as dispensable.
