SHANKAR PANDURANG JADHAV AND ORS. ETC. versus VICE-ADMIRAL, FLAG OFFICER, COMMANDING-IN-CHIEF AND ORS. ETC.

Citation: [1991] 1 S.C.R. 219 · Decided: 05-02-1991 · Supreme Court of India · Bench: A.M. AHMADI · Disposal: Dismissed

Judgment (excerpt)

SHANKAR PANDURANG JADHAV AND ORS. ETC. 
v. 
VICE-ADMIRAL, FLAG OFFICER, COMMANDING-IN-CHIEF 
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r, 
AND ORS. ETC. 
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_____._ 
FEBRUARY 5, 1991 
[A.M. AHMADI, V. RAMASWAMI AND 
M. FATHIMA BEEVI, JJ.] 
Service and Labour Law: Transfer-Naval Dockyard-Time 
Keepers Cadre~Entitled to benefits of over-time and productivity 
linked bonus-Merger with clerical cadre-To provide avenues of pro-
motion-Transfer to other ministerial departments entailing loss of 
benefit of over-time and bonus-Transfers resisted-Held that emplo-
yees who were serving in the Time Keeping Department before the 
merger order not to be transferred without theTr ciinsent-Those joining 
after the merger order have no right to resist transfer. 
Service law-Presidential order merging Time Keepers Cadre 
with Clerical Cadre-Subsequent Order issued by the Western Naval 
Command-Inconsistency if any to be ignored as it could not alter or 
modify the Presidential Order-To be read harmoniously with the Pre-
sident Order. 
The appellants and Writ Petitioners are serving in the Time keeping 
Department of the Naval Dockyard, Bombay under the control of the 
Western Naval Command. With a view to removing the stagnation in 
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the cadre of Time Keepers for lack of _promotional avenues, the 
Government of India, Miriistry of Defence, by its letter dated 14.9.1966 
addressed to the Chief of Naval Staff conveyed the sanction of the 
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President to the merger of the Time Keepers Cadre with the Clerical 
Cadre in all Naval establishments. Consequent to this merger the 
Jr. Time Keepers were to be re-designated as Lower Division Clerks 
and Sr. Time Keepers as Upper Division Clerks. A few days thereafter 
the Office of the Rear Admiral, Western Naval Command, issued a 
letter dated 5.12.1966 which reads as under: 
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2. This merger is intended only to give promotion to the Time 
Keepers along with the LDC /UDC. Their duties, terms and conditions 
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220 
SUPREME COURT REPORTS 
[ 1991] I S.C.R. 
of Service will remain the same and their hours of work will also con-
tinue to be 45 in a week. 
3. Consequent upon the issue of this order and in order to distin-
guish them from the UDC /LDC and UDC(s) /LDC(s) the sutitx "T" will 
be added after their designation. 
" 
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· · As per their conditions of service the employees serving in the 
Ti.me keeping Department were entitled to the benefit of over-time and 
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. productivity-linked bonus but those belonging to the clerical cadre 
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working in the Administrative Offices of the Dockyard were not 
entitled to these benefits. 
One Thoppil Ramakrishnan on being transferred in August 1980 
as UDC(T) in the Spare Parts Distribution Centre, challenged his trans-
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fer by a Writ Petition in the High Court of Bombay wherein he con-
tended that as he was initially appointed Jr. Time Keeper and pro-
moted as UDC(T) in 1967 he belonged to a special cadre and could not 
be transfered to the general cadre as that would entail loss of benefit of 
over-time and bonus. The High Court treating the letter dated 5th 
December, 1966 as inerely clarificatory, held that there was no complete 
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merger of the two cadres and on the statement of the counsel for the 
petitioner that the petitioner will not claim the benefit of promotion in 
the clerical cadre, allowed the writ petition quashing the transfer order. 
Realising the.situation created by its letter of 5th December, 1966 
the Western Naval Command cancelled the said letter and consequently 
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inter-se transfers became possible. Thereafter, some employees in the 
Time Keeping Department were transfered by orders dated 17.4.1985 
and 5.10.1985. The affected employees f'lled Writ Petitions in the High 
Court which were later transferred to the Central Administrative Tri-
bun~I. The Tribunal came to the conclusion that after the cancellation 
of the Order dated 5.12.1966, the field was held by the Presidential 
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Order dated 14.9.1966, that under the merger Scheme envisaged by the 
said order the employees in the Time Keeping Department no longer 
belonged to a separate Cadre and as such the Authorities were entitled 
to transfer them to other ministerial branches. The Petitions were 
. 
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· accordingly dismissed by a coinn,onjudgmel!t dated 9th October, 1989. 
This ju~gme~t is ~ss~iled by the concerned employees in the appeals 
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~efore t~is court. O~e Writ Petition has also been filed by some other 
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S.P. JADHAV v. VIC

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