Court Stenos, Readers Who Underwent Computer Training Between 2006–2014 Entitled To Advance Increment: MP High Court

The Madhya Pradesh High Court, on Monday (January 5), held that the benefit of one advance increment must be extended to all Class III judicial employees who had undergone computer knowledge training between February 6, 2006, to September 29, 2014, as a right has been accrued in their favour. 

The division bench of Justice Vivek Rusia and Justice Pradeep Mittal observed; 

"Those who were appointed when no qualification for computer knowledge was prescribed were required to undergo training to encourage them to deal with computer work, and after successful completion of the training, they were granted the benefit of an advance increment". 

Multiple petitions were filed seeking similar relief, and therefore, for the sake of convenience, the facts of one of the petitions were taken into consideration. 

The petitioner was appointed in the District Court in January 1986, and in 1990, computerization for the functioning was initiated by the National Informatics Centre (NIC). The Supreme Court, thereafter, directed all High Courts to constitute an e-committee for computerization. Subsequently, the Registrar General of the High Court issued directions to organise a programme to impart training to its employees working in the High Court and District Courts in Word Processing, basic computer operations, Internet usage, and data entry and management. 

The General Administration Department, on February 6, 2006, issued a circular to all Chief Secretaries and Secretaries of all the Departments to impart basic training to all officers and employees of the Class III to be certified by the Government Engineering College, Polytechnic College or ITI. 

Per clause 9 of the 2006 circular, the department with the availability of computers prescribes a grant of an advance increment after one year of training, and in departments without computers, the advance increment would be granted after three years of training. 

The High Court, in another petition, WP 14007/2006, directed that an advance increment be granted to all employees who have undergone computer training. 

However, the petitioner contended that the advance increment was denied to him despite undergoing the computer training through the circular of September 24, 2014, which cancelled the GAD circular of 2006 granting said benefit to employees. 

The State argued that the petitioner was not entitled to the benefit as the same was recalled through another circular of 2014. It was further submitted that for appointment of Grade III, after the amendment from 2009, the essential qualification of a computer certificate was made mandatory in the Recruitment Rules- Diploma in Computer (PGDCA).

Therefore, it was argued that any appointment made after such amendment with computer knowledge and therefore February 4, 2020, was the cut-off date for denying the benefit of one advance increment. 

The petitioner argued that the cut-off date would not apply in his case, as when he was appointed, there was no requirement for a computer knowledge qualification. Therefore, the petitioner had undergone training in compliance with the 2006 circular and thus was entitled to an advance increment. 

The court noted that the Administrative Committee of the District Court recommended the grant of an advance increment through the circular of 2006. Since the petitioner had been given computer training, a right had accrued in his favour. Since the Government withdrew the circular of 2006, those who underwent training from February 6, 2006, to September 29, 2014, were entitled to the benefit of an advance increment. 

The court concurred with the argument that under the amended rules, the employees hired after 2014 were selected with computer knowledge and therefore, the question of granting an advance increment did not arise. 

The bench noted that the recruitment rules before 2014 did not mandate computer knowledge and therefore, those employees in this period had no qualification in computer knowledge. Therefore, the government had passed a circular to encourage training these employees. 

Thus, the bench directed; 

"In view of the above, all the captioned writ petitions as well as contempt petition are allowed. The petitioners are entitled to the benefit of the advance increment, as certified by the Principal and District Judge, for those who underwent training between 06.02.2006 and 26.09.2014. Since most of the petitioners have retired from service, they shall be given arrears of salary as well as arrears of pension. Additionally, their Pension Payment Orders (PPOs) shall be revised accordingly". 

Case Title: Rakesh Verma v State of Madhya Pradesh [WP-16081-2020]

For Petitioners: Advocates Shailendra Verma, Harsh Gupta and Qasim Ali

For High Court (respondent no 4): Advocate Piyush D. Dharmadhikari 

For NIC: Advocate Satendra Kumar Patel

For State: Deputy Advocate General Abhijeet Awasthi

Click here to read/download the Order