TMI Blog1998 (8) TMI 597X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... s writ petition has also been allowed by the Delhi High court by judgment and order dated 25.7.97 in which the earlier judgments dated 13.9.96 and 25.7.97 have been followed. The questions involved in both the appeals are the same with the only difference that in the first petition there are 11 respondents while in the 2nd there are 5, out of whom one is the window of a deceased respondent. 3. NBCC is a Government of India Enterprises (Government Company) engaged in the business of construction work in India and abroad. In addition to its own permanent work force, it obtained the services of personnel drawn from other Government Departments, including Central Public Works Department, from where the respondents were brought on deputation for one of the overseas projects being executed by the NBCC in Iraq. Respondents joined the NBCC on deputation on the basis of certain office orders one of which is the office order dated 21.11.1993 which reads as under: The Director General of works, CPWD, has been pleased to place the services of the following Executive Engineers (Civil) of this department at the disposal of national Buildings Construction Corporation, New Delhi for appoi ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... contribution towards leaves salary and pension for the period the officer remains on foreign service will be paid by foreign employer according to the rates in force from time to time in accordance with the orders issued by the President under F.R. 116. 7. He will remain subject to leave rules applicable to the service of which he is a member. 8. He will be eligible to the Medical Attendance and the treatment not inferior to that admissible to an officer of the corresponding state under the Central Government Rules. 9. Joining time, joining time pay and travelling allowance on transfer to the foreign service and reversion therefrom shall be regulated under rules framed by foreign Employer and paid for by him. 10. He will be entitled to leave travel concessions as admissible to Central Government Employees of his status and expenditure on this amount will borne by the foreign employer. 11. The whole expenditure in respect of any compensatory allowance for the period of leave in or at the end of foreign service shall be borne by the foreign employer. 12. He will not be allowed to join pension scheme which may be in force in the Foreign Service. 13. The foreign s ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... 9. The recommendations of the Fourth Pay Commission , allegedly, had given rise to some unrest amongst employees of various public sector undertakings who filed a Writ Petition directly in this Court. The Writ Petition was disposed of on 14th March, 1986 with the direction to the Government of India to appoint a High Power Committee to look into their grievances. Consequently, the Government of India appointed a High Power Committee on 7th April, 1986 under the Chairmanship of Mr. Justice R.B. Mishra, a retired judge of this Court. 10. The High Power Committee submitted its report to the Government on 24.11.88 and by Order dated 03.05.90, this Court directed that the recommendations of the Committee may be implemented. 11. In order to implement the High Power Committee report, NBCC issued an order dated 15th October, 1990 for revision of wages of all its employees posted on overseas projects including those who had joined on deputation. This order was challenged by the respondents directly in this court in Civil Writ Petition No. 1091 of 1991 but it was dismissed as withdrawn on 18.12.91 with liberty to approach the High Court. The respondents then filed the Writ Petition in ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... Commission Report. Consequently, the time was prayed for making the payment. 13. On the basis of these two statements of the counsel for NBCC, the Writ Petition was disposed of on 21st July, 1993 by issuing a direction to NBCC to make payment to the respondents within eight weeks. NBCC, however, filed a review application before the High Court on the ground that the statements of the counsel made before it do not correctly reflect their stand bu the High Court dismissed the review application on 12th October, 1993. It was against this order that NBCC filed Special Leave Petitions before this Court. Leave was granted and the two Civil Appeals No. 7113/95 and 7114/95 were disposed of by this Court on 4th August, 1995. The appeals were allowed and the order dated 21st July, 1992, passed by the High Court, was set aside. The Writ Petitions were directed to be restored for being disposed of on merits. 14. The High Court by the impugned judgment dated September 13, 1996 and 25.7.97 disposed of both the petitions and it is its direction to NBCC to pay Foreign Allowance @ 125% on the revised basic pay with effect from 01.01.86 which is the only contentious issue between the parties i ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... , on the basis of revised basic pay. There was, therefore, no rationale or reasonable basis for rejecting any such increase in respect of Foreign Allowance. 17. Form the facts set out above and those pleaded before the High Court, it will be seen that Foreign Allowance was not part of the agreement between the respondents and NBCC. The respondents were inducted into NBCC on deputation and, therefore, NBCC had agreed to pay them the Deputation (Duty) Allowance. As pointed out earlier, with regard to this allowance or, for that matter, any other allowance, there is no dispute between the parties involved in this petition and the only question with which we are concerned in this petition is payment of Foreign Allowance payable at the rate of 125% of the revised basic pay. The further question is whether the High Court merely on the basis of the doctrine of Legitimate Expectation was justified in allowing the claim of the respondents.? 18. The doctrine of Legitimate Expectation has its genesis in the field of administrative law. The Government and its departments, in administering the affairs of the country are expected to honour their statements of policy or intention and tr ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... n aggrieved person was entitled to judicial review if he could show that a decision of the public authority affected him of some benefit or advantage which in the past he had been permitted to enjoy and which he legitimately expected to be permitted to continue to enjoy either until he was given reasons for withdrawal and the opportunity to comment on such reasons. 23. This Court further observed as under:- The existence of 'legitimate expectation' may have a number of different consequences and one of such consequences is that the authority ought not to act to defeat the legitimate expectation' without some overriding reason of public policy to justify its doing so. In a case of 'legitimate expectation' if the authority proposes to defeat a person's 'legitimate expectation' it should afford him an opportunity to make representations in the matter............................. ............... It may be indicated here that the doctrine of 'legitimate expectation' imposes in essence a duty on public authority to act fairly by taking into consideration all relevant factors relating to such 'legitimate expectation' the reason ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... or invalidating the exercise of a power when its exercise otherwise accords with law. the Court observed as under:- If a denial of legitimate expectation in a given case amounts to denial of right guaranteed or is arbitrary, discriminatory, unfair or biased, gross abuse of power or violation of principles of natural justice, the same can be questioned on the well-known grounds attracting Article 14 but a claim based on mere legitimate expectation without anything more cannot ipso factor give a right to invoke these principles. It can be one of the grounds to consider but the court must lift the veil and see whether the decision is violative of these principles warranting interference. It depends very much on the facts and the recognised general principles of administrative law applicable to such facts and the concept of legitimate expectation which is the latest recruit to a long list of concepts fashioned by the courts for the review of administrative action, must be restricted to the general legal limitations applicable and binding the manner of the future exercise of administrative power in a particular case. It follows that the concept of legitimate expectation is not the ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... The deputation (duty) allowance is also an allowance payable on percentage basis and on revision of pay, it is payable on percentage basis on the revised basic pay. 28. At another place, the High Court has observed as under: Petitioners were to be governed by the terms and conditions contained in order of deputation, copy of which was also sent to the respondent. The respondent accepted the petitioners services on deputation on the terms and conditions, as attached to the said order. Since the respondent has not produced on record the alleged contract or its copy and nothing was alleged during the course of arguments on the alleged contract, we have no hesitation in holding that the office order similar to annexure P-I, issued in the case of each petitioner containing terms and conditions of deputation would govern their case and in so far as the foreign allowance is concerned, the same would be payable to the petitioners on the same percentage on the revised basic pay at which it was a payable prior to revision on the pre-revised basic pay and the action of the respondent as regards this allowances is concerned, is bad in as much as the petitioners legitimately expected ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... was the benefit of such revision available? who are those other officers and employees serving on deputation in a foreign country who were benefitted by any revision in the pay structure during the period 1982-83 to 1986-87? These are the few questions which legitimately arise, and unless there is material on record to answer these questions, the observations of the High Court that whenever there was a revision in the pay scales, Foreign Allowance was correspondingly increased and, therefore, the respondents had come to entertain Legitimate Expectation , are wholly speculative, besides being erroneous. 33. Foreign Allowance could also not be treated as a salary component or akin to Deputation (Duty) Allowance as it was in the nature of a residuary perk regulated by the provisions of F.R. 51(2). 34. Fundamental Rule 51 provides as under:- F.R. 51. (1) When a Government servant is, with proper sanction, temporarily deputed for duty out of India either in connection with the post held by him in India or in connection with any special duty on which he may temporarily be place, he may be allowed by the President to draw during the period of deputation the same pay which h ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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