Delhi High Court– In a landmark verdict, the bench comprising of Kailash Gambhir and Najmi Wajiri JJ, hearing a batch of writ petitions which challenged the decision of the respondents to reject grant of Non-Functional Financial Upgradation (‘NFFU’), as applicable to other Group “A” Officers of the Central Government to the petitioners, declared central paramilitary forces like BSF, CRPF, ITBP, SSB and CISF as “organised services” and the benefits contemplated by the 6th Central Pay Commission by way of NFFU to remove disparity between All India Services and other Organised Central Group “A” services ought to be granted to the petitioners.
In the instant case the petitioners sought a writ of mandamus to grant them, i.e., Executive Group-A officers of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF), the benefit of NFFU with effect from 01.06.2006, as given to other Officers of Group-A Service under PB-3 & PB-4, as issued vide Office Memorandum (OM) dated 24.04.2009 and sought to be declared as an Organized Group “A” Service with effect from 01.01.2006 with all consequential benefits. Counsels for the petitioners were Jyoti Singh and Rekha Palli while respondents were represented by Sanjay Jain.
The Court while deciding on the status of the petitioners as belonging to Organised Group “A” Service observed that “it is a settled canon of constitutional jurisprudence that the doctrine of classification is a subsidiary rule evolved by courts to give practical content to the doctrine of equality. Over-emphasis of the doctrine of classification or anxious or sustained attempt to discover some basis for classification may gradually and imperceptively erode the profound potency of the glorious content of equality enshrined in Article 14 of the Constitution”. The Court further noted that that the presence of reports and other documents explicitly stating the CAPFs are an Organised Group “A” Service provide evidence that they have been constituted consciously and through established procedures. G.J Singh v. Union of India, 2015 SCC OnLine Del 11803, decided on 03.09.2015