NATIONAL POWER TRANSMISSION CORPORATION LTD. versus CORPORATE EXECUTIVE ASSOCIATION OF NTPC (CEAN) NEW DELHI AND ORS.

Citation: [1992] 2 S.C.R. 234 · Decided: 13-03-1992 · Supreme Court of India · Bench: M.N. VENKATACHALIAH · Disposal: Appeal(s) allowed
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Judgment (excerpt)

A 
NATIONAL POWER TRANSMISSION CORPORATION LTD. 
B 
c 
v. 
CORPORATE EXECUTIVE ASSOCIATION OF NTPC (CEAN) 
NEW DELHI AND ORS. 
MARCH 13, 1992 
[M.N. VENKATACHALIAH AND R.C. PATNAIK, JJ.] 
Constitution of India, 1950 : Article 226. 
Fonnation of National Power Transmission Corporation-Transfer of 
assets and employees of National Thennal Power Corporation and other 
generating organisations-~etition challenging transfer-Claim of equal pay 
for equal work by employees recruited from National Thermal Power Cor-
poration-Direction by High Court at interlocutory stage, 'if employees 
D recruited from other Corporations receive higher emolument then employees 
recruited from National Thermal Power Corporation should be treated on 
par'-Direction held unjustified. 
E 
F 
The National Power Transmission Corporation (NPTC) was incor-
porated on 23rd October, 1989. Governments of India issued instructions 
regarding transfer of assets and employees from other generating or-
ganisations to NPTC. The National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) 
also issued a circular in conformity with the Government's instructions. 
The respondent-association filed a writ petition in the Delhi High Court, 
challenging the instructions and the circular. Based on the undertaking 
given by the Attorney General the Division Bench of the High Court passed 
an interim order directing that the NPTC should not recruit persons from . 
any source other than· NTPC and if it recruits employees from other 
Corporations, it should pay equal pay for equal work i.e. in case the 
employees recruited from other Corporations get higher emolum~nts 
doing the same nature of work then the employees recruited from NTPC 
G should also be paid the same higher emoluments. NPTC filed an appeal 
in this court challenging the interim order on the ground that having 
regard to the scope of the writ petition and the relief sought, the High 
Court erred in passing the interim order. 
H 
Allowing the appeal, this court; 
234 
N.P.T.C. v. NTPC ASSCN. [PATNAIK, J.] 
235 
HELD : The terms and conditions of service of employees of National A 
Thermal Power Corporation were protected in the instructions issued by 
the Government of India and the circular issued by the National Thermal 
Power Corporation as also in the undertaking given by the learned Attor-
ney General. The employees of National Thermal Power Corporation on 
transfer-absorption were not to suffer any detriment as regards the terms 
and conditions of service enjoyed by them before their transfer-absorption. 
No irreparable injury was going to be caused to the employees of National 
Thermal Power Corporation if the impugned direction was not given. In 
fact the said direction militated against the obse1'Vation made by Division 
Bench of the High Court. The High Court at the interlocutory stage should 
not have given the direction that if the employees of other Corporations 
other than National Thermal Power Corporation receive higher emolu-
ments, the employees of National Thermal Power Corporation should also 
be entitled to the same. Accordingly, the direction given by the High Court 
is set aside. [241G-H, 242A-C] 
B 
c 
State of Andhra Pradesh & Ors. v. G. Sreenivasa Rao & Ors., [1989) D 
2 sec 290, referred to. 
CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION: Civil Appeal No. 2257 of 
1992. 
From the Judgment and Order dated 21.10.91 of the Delhi High E 
Court in C.M. No.4875 of 1991 in C.W. No.2377 of 1991. 
G. Ramaswamy, Attorney Generai, P.P. Malhotra, S.K. Dhingra, J.C. 
Seth and Gurnam Singh for the Appellants. 
G.B. Pai, Janarangana Das, Amarendra Bal, Dr. Rajeev Dhawan, 
G.V. Rao and Ms. Kamini Jaiswal for the Respondents. 
The following Judgment of the Court was delivered by 
PATNAIK, J. Special leave granted. 
On 23rd October, 1989 was incorporated National Power Transmis-
sion Corporation (NPTC) with the object of developing a power system 
network in all its aspects including planning, investigation, research, design 
F 
G 
and engineering preparation and construction of sub-stations, load 
despatch stations and communication facilities, co-ordination of regional H 
236 
SUPREME COURT REPORTS 
[1992] 2 S.C.R. 
A 
and national grid system, providing consultancy, execution of turnkey jobs 
and purchase and sale of power. To achieve these objectives, it was decided 
to transfer it transmission lines and sub-stations of the various generating 
organisations and sub-stations of the various generating organisation name-
ly (a)
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