HC orders AAI to pay apprentice salary of manager

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: The High Court of Karnataka has directed the Airports Authority of India to pay the full salary of a manager who was being paid only Rs 13,000 as a stipend. The AAI said he was entitled to only the stipend as it had issued a notification in this regard.

The High Court, however, said that once he is appointed as a manager, he has to be paid the pay scale applicable to a manager. AAI had issued a recruitment notification in December 2007. Sreelesh Sreedharan was appointed as a manager on 23.11.2010 and a stipend of Rs 13,000 was fixed during the period of his training.

However, the pay scale attached to the post of manager was not paid to Sreedharan. Sreedharan approached the High Court of Karnataka and a single-judge bench that heard his petition directed the AAI to accord him the benefit of salary in the pay scale admissible to the post held. This order was challenged by the AAI before a division bench of the HC in 2021.

The division bench of Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice Vijaykumar A Patil gave its judgment recently. The advocate for the AAI argued that the recruitment notifica - tion dated 24.12.2007 provides for a fixed stipend of Rs 13,000 and therefore Sreedharan was not entitled for the benefit of the pay scale. The Division Bench however ruled in favour of Sreedharan.

It said, “Admittedly, the respondent has been appointed in pursuance of a process of recruitment initiated vide notification dated 24.12.2007. The remuneration payable to the respondent is admissible as per the pay scale attached to the post. The respondent is entitled to the pay scale attached to the post of Manager under the statutory rules and therefore, the aforesaid benefit cannot be taken away merely by reference to a recruitment notification dated 24.12.2007.”

The HC also said that the AAI was a government body and should be a model employer. Dismissing the appeal it said, “The learned Single Judge has also noticed that the appellant is instrumentality of the State and therefore, is a model employer. They cannot be permitted to act in contravention of the statutory rules.”