High Court directs state to settle dues of 1,131 licensed surveyors in Survey Department

In a relief to 1,131 licensed surveyors in the Department of Survey, Settlement and Land Records, the high court has directed the state to pay them the remuneration in terms of Government Order dated August 12, 2008 after ascertaining the additional work done by them.

A division bench comprising Justice Krishna S Dixit and Justice Ramachandra D Huddar passed this order while partly allowing the writ appeal filed by the licensed surveyors.

The appellants submitted that by the order dated August 12, 2008, payment of Rs 500 was provided for every Tatkal Phodi Work. The order also enhanced the Pre-Mutation Sketch Fee from Rs 403 to Rs 600. The order was issued as a matter of policy of catering to the needs of agriculturists on urgency basis, subject to payment of the prescribed fees for tapping the services.

According to the appellants, the additional financial benefits were not given despite performance of additional job in terms of the government order. They moved an appeal after a single bench had dismissed their petitions on February 26, 2014. The appellants contended that the amount payable in terms of the government order had already been recovered by the authorities from the service seekers and it is credited to a specified account.

Executive instruction

The division bench noted that the single bench could not have been swayed by the state government’s argument that the August 12, 2008 order was only in the nature of an executive instruction and therefore, is not justiceable.

“Respondents cannot be selective in implementing the said Order in the sense that, they can extract the additional work and still they will not pay for it. It has to take the rose with thorn, to put it metaphorically. An argument to the contrary would be offensive to the pith and substance of Article 23 of the Constitution which proscribes ‘begar’ namely, extracting work without paying for it,” the bench said.

The bench also cited the state of Gujarat vs High Court of Gujarat case and said that the Apex Court broadly held that even the convicts serving the sentence in the jail cannot be denied some reward in cash. “That is the sanctity which our evolved system attaches to the human labour and dignity. This aspect of the matter ought to have weighed with Single Judge, however, somehow, it was lost sight of,” the bench said.

The bench said that the authorities have to pay interest at the rate of 1% per mensum, to be recovered from the erring officials if there is delay in payment of the dues.