"To Pay Rs 9000 p.m Is Nothing But Exploitation": Supreme Court Asks Odisha To Reconsider Home Guards' Monthly Salary

The bench of Justices MR Shah and BV Nagarathna rendered this direction while considering a Special Leave Petition assailing Odisha High Court's order dated August 19, 2020.

"To pay Rs.9,000/- p.m. is nothing but an exploitation. How a Home Guard Personnel can survive and maintain his family members on payment of Rs.9,000/- p.m. only when he is performing almost the same/similar duties which is performed by other Police Personnel?" the bench had observed while asking the State to reconsider its decision.

The bench while rendering this decision had further noted that it wasn't in dispute that the Home Guards in the State of Odisha were being paid only Rs.9,000/- per month (@ Rs.300/- per day) and that the other Police Personnel in the State were getting approximately Rs.21,700/- + D.A. as per the recommendations made by the Seventh Pay Commission (after 6 years of their contractual appointment).

Case Before High Court

Before the High Court, Home Guards who were working under the State's Home Department for more than 10 years had preferred a writ seeking direction to the State of Odisha to disburse their salary as per the direction of the Apex Court in Grah Rakshak, Home Guards Welfare Association vs. State of Himachal Pradesh and others, (2015) 6 SCC 247 and subsequent order dated 04.05.2016 passed in a contempt petition, by which the Apex Court had clarified its earlier order.

In the said judgement, the Top Court had considered the working conditions of the Home Guards in different States of the Country, especially, the State of Himachal Pradesh, Bombay, and NCT of Delhi.

Taking into consideration the fact that Home Guards were used during the emergency and for other purposes and at the time of their duty they were empowered with the power of police personnel, the Top Court had opined that the State Government should pay them the duty allowance at such rates, total of which 30 days (a month) came to minimum of the pay to which the police personnel of State were entitled.

In their writ, Home Guards had also sought for the benefit of 7th Pay Commission from the date which had been given to their counterparts by other States.

The Single Judge of the High Court had allowed the reliefs sought while taking into account the aspect that Home Guards were discharging various duties apart from assisting the police personnel in maintaining law and order situation and taking part in controlling the traffic.

The Single Judge had directed the State Government to implement the recommendation of the Directorate General (Fire Service, Home Guards, Civil Defence), Odisha for payment at the minimum sum of Rs.533/- per day taking into consideration the remuneration paid to the Constables in the State of Odisha in the lowest rank in the police personnel from 10.11.2016 and pending decision thereon, to pay them provisionally at the rate of minimum Rs.500/- (Rupees Five hundred) per day from January, 2020.

Against the Single Judge's order, the State had approached the Division Bench of the High Court.

While considering the writ appeal, the Division Bench of the High Court had affirmed the view taken by the Single Judge of discarding State's argument that payment of Daily Allowance of Rs 500 would be in excess to the present remuneration of the Contractual Constables recruited at initial stage.

"In our view, learned Single Judge has rightly rejected the aforesaid argument by observing that if the State Government has created any post of Contractual Constable, as per the Rules of 2013, outside the cadre of police personnel, this development has nothing to do with the case at hand. We do not find any infirmity with the view taken by the learned Single Judge because, what is mentioned by the Supreme Court in paragraph 22 of the aforesaid judgment is that the State Government should pay to the Home Guards the duty allowance at such rates, total of which (30 days -a month) comes to minimum of the pay to which the police personnel of State are entitled. It is peculiar to the State of Odisha that the contractual appointments are regulated by statutory rules, entitling such appointees to regularization after satisfactory completion of six years in service. Curiously enough, even the Constables, who are supposed to be members of police force, subject to the Police Act, 1861, are also initially appointed on contractual basis. Constables appointed on regular establishment of the Police constitute a distinct and separate class than those appointed on In our view, learned Single Judge has rightly rejected the aforesaid argument by observing that if the State Government has created any post of Contractual Constable, as per the Rules of 2013, outside the cadre of police personnel, this development has nothing to do with the case at hand. We do not find any infirmity with the view taken by the learned Single Judge because, what is mentioned by the Supreme Court in paragraph 22 of the aforesaid judgment is that the State Government should pay to the Home Guards the duty allowance at such rates, total of which (30 days -a month) comes to minimum of the pay to which the police personnel of State are entitled. It is peculiar to the State of Odisha that the contractual appointments are regulated by statutory rules, entitling such appointees to regularization after satisfactory completion of six years in service. Curiously enough, even the Constables, who are supposed to be members of police force, subject to the Police Act, 1861, are also initially appointed on contractual basis. Constables appointed on regular establishment of the Police constitute a distinct and separate class than those appointed on regular establishments and not on contractual basis," the High Court's division bench had observed.

While allowing the State's writ appeal in part the Division Bench had modified the part of the impugned judgement and said,

"We are not inclined to interfere with the impugned judgment except that we are persuaded to modify the directive portion of the impugned judgment to the limited extent for implementation of the recommendation of the Directorate General (Fire Service, Home Guards, Civil Defence), Odisha for payment at the rate of Rs.533/- per day to the Home Guards from January, 2020, instead of 10.11.2016 as directed by the learned Single Judge and direct that arrears shall be payable to the Home Guards only from January 2020, within a period of three months from the date of this judgment."

Case Title: Prakash Kumar Jena & Ors v State of Odisha & Ors| SLP 12485 of 2020

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