Gujarat High Court Dismisses Appeal Seeking Nursing Allowance For Nurses Working In Surat Municipal Corporation's Hospitals And Dispensaries

Observing that the employees of the State Government and Surat Municipal Corporation, being governed by different rules and pay conditions, cannot be considered a single class, the Gujarat High Court has dismissed an appeal filed by the Gujarat Pradesh Maha Nagarpalika Karmachari Congress, seeking direction to the Surat Municipal Corporation to pay nursing allowance to the nurses in its various hospitals and dispensaries.

The division bench of Justice N.V. Anjaria and Justice J.C. Doshi observed that the employees of state government and Corporation are governed by different set of rules and pay conditions and merely because two of the allowances were made available to the State nursing staff, it would not automatically entitle the Corporation staff to claim the nursing allowance. There is no right with the Corporation nursing staff to be paid the allowances, even if the same is paid to the State employees, said the court.

“Furthermore, payment of allowances or service benefits to its employees is in the domain of Corporation. It is a matter of policy to be adopted where allowances at par with the employees of the State Government is to be paid or not. The petitioners cannot claim the said as of right nor the High Court can give such relief in respect of the policy matter,” it added.

The appeal filed by union challenged the order of the single judge who had dismissed the Special Civil Application, whereby the petitioners sought nursing allowance of Rs.225/- per month, along with interest, from 18.02.2002 to 3.10.2012, and further sought disbursement of the revised nursing allowance at Rs.600/- per month.

The petitioners primarily relied on the Resolution, issued by the Health and Welfare Department of the State Government, which provided for the payment of nursing allowance, uniform allowance, and washing allowance to the nursing staff employed by the State Government. It stated that the prescribed rate of allowance would be payable to nursing staff working under the District Panchayat, Health Centres, and Primary Health Centres.

Based on this Resolution, the petitioners argued that nursing staff employed by the State Government receives these allowances, and the Surat Municipal Corporation has also started paying washing and welfare allowances, albeit at the pre-revised rates.

Subsequently, the Corporation authorities revised the washing allowance and uniform allowance in response to the representation. The two allowances were now paid on the same basis as the State Government nursing staff. However, the remaining nursing allowance, amounting to Rs. 225 per month as per the aforementioned Resolution, was still not being paid to the nurses of the Surat Municipal Corporation. The authorities turned down the request for payment of this allowance.

The court opined that the reasoning applied by the single judge was proper and noted that the Resolution was specifically confined to State Government employees and could not be directly applied to Corporation employees. The court also considered budgetary constraints as a relevant consideration for extending monetary benefits.

“Therefore, in dismissing the Special Civil Application and not granting prayer made by the petitioner, learned single Judge could not be said to have committed any error. The challenge to the order of learned single Judge is meritless,” the court said while dismissing the appeal.

Case Title: Gujarat Pradesh Maha Nagarpalika Versus State Of Gujarat

R/Letters Patent Appeal No. 950 Of 2022 In R/Special Civil Application No. 17073 Of 2016

With

Civil Application (For Stay) No. 1 Of 2020 In R/Letters Patent Appeal No. 950 Of 2022

Appearance: Mr Nk Majmudar(430) For The Appellant(S) No. 1,2 Mr Hs Munshaw(495) For The Respondent(S) No. 2 Ms Shruti Dhruve, Agp For The Respondent(S) No. 1

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