CHAPTER – XXXVIII
GRAMIN DAK SEWAKS
38 :1 GDS IN POSTAL – AN ANACHRONISM
38:1:1 The postal Department
employs the largest number of Government employees, next to Railways and
Defense. Nearly half of its workforce is called the Grameen Dak Sewaks, the new
nomenclature given for the Extra Departmental Agents. The system of EDAs was
evolved by the British Colonial Government to sustain a postal system at a
cheaper cost especially in rural areas.
38:1:2 Despite the enactment
of very many legislations to prohibit the exploitation of workers,the
Government continued with this system. No doubt in the post independence era,
at the instance and the persuasion of the Unions of regular employees, certain
benefits were accorded to them. Till 1963, the GDS or the Extra Departmental
Agents were treated as Government employees and were covered by the service
conditions applicable to civil servants.
38:1:3 However, the
Department of Posts reversed this position thereafter and contended that they
are not Central Government employees. The Honourable Supreme Court in 1977
declared that they are holders of Civil Posts. Justice Talwar Committee
appointed by the Govt. to look into the issues pertaining to GDS declared that
the GDS are holders of Civil posts and all benefits similar to regular
employees must be extended to them. However, the Government did not accept this
recommendation of the committee, which they themselves set up.
38:1:4 On the specific
suggestion of the Postal Department, the Government set up a separate Committee
called the Natarajamurthy Committee to go into their service conditions and
suggest improvement on the lines of the
recommendations of the 6th CPC. The recommendations of this Committee
were totally disappointing and the GDS in the post 6th CPC era is worse off.
38:2 Justification to consider the GDS issues by the Seventh Pay Commission
38:2:1 The justification for
consideration of their cases by the Seventh Pay Commission is narrated below
for the kind and favourable consideration of the Seventh Pay Commission.
38:2:2 The earlier claim of
the Union of India that the relations between Extra Departmental Agents and the
Govt. was one of principal and agent and not of master and servant has been
emphatically rejected by the Hon’ble Supreme Court in Superintendent of
Post Office V/s. P. K. Rajamma, 1977 (3)
SCR 678 and declared that they are holders of Civil Post.
38:2:3 The observation of the
Fourth Central Pay Commission is furnished inter
alia;
"A letter was received from the Ministry of Communications
(P&T Board) for exclusion of the extra departmental employees, numbering
about 3 lakhs, from the purview of our inquiry. It was stated that the system
of Extra Departmental Agents was peculiar tothe P&T organization and was
designed to extend postal facilities in rural and backward areas where opening
of regular departmental post offices was not justified due to inadequate
workload. The remuneration and the conditions of service of Extra Departmental
Agents were also different from those of regular Government employees. The
Third Pay Commission accepted the view that the extra departmental agents were
not holders of civil posts and decided to exclude them from its purview.
The matter is, however, beyond controversy after the decision of
the Supreme Court in Gokulananda Das's case where it has been declared that an
Extra Departmental Agent is not a casual worker, but 'holds a post under the
administrative control of the State' and that while such a post is outside the
regular civil services, there is no doubt that it is a post under the 'State'.
In view of this pronouncement, we were unable to accept the contention that
extra departmental employees were outside the purview of the terms of our
Commission. They have no doubt, their own peculiar conditions of service and,
in that sense, their case is somewhat special. We, therefore, could not exclude
them from our consideration, but we accepted the Government's suggestion for
the setting up of a one-man committee to look in to their conditions of service
as was done by the Second and Third Pay commissions.”
38:2;4 From the above
observation, it is crystal clear that the Fourth Pay Commission was in the
conclusion that the ED Agents are civil servants, even though they are kept
outside the regular civil service and therefore they were included within the
purview of the said Pay Commission. The above observation postulates that
though the ED Agents are ‘outside the regular civil service’, yet they are
civil servants and, therefore, were included within the purview of the
commission. As per the law of the land laid by the Supreme Court, the ED Agents
are civil servants as defined under Article 311 (1) of the Constitutions.
Necessarily, therefore, they come within the purview of Article 309 as well.
The Govt as a model employer, shall not create class within the class of the
term of Central Govt employees after the clear
verdict of the Supreme Court that the GDS are holders of civil post.
38:2:5 The Savoor Committee
appointed at the time of the Fourth Pay Commission in its report under Para 11.4 also observed inter alia:
“The Supreme Court judgment in Civil Appeal No. 1313 of 1976 enunciated
the principle that ED agents are holders of civil posts, but outside the
regular civil service. The specific issue before the court at the time (Civil
Appeal No. 1313 of 1976) was the
validity of the orders of the appropriate authority of removal and
dismissal of certain Branch Post Masters. Consequently the ED agents, being
holders of civil posts would be entitled to the benefit of security of service
conferred on Government Servants by the provision of Article 311 of the
Constitution.”
38:2:6 The Central Civil
Service (Classification, Control & Appeal) Rules 1965 are rules made under
Article 309 of the Constitution of India and govern all persons who are members
of any service or who hold a civil post under the Union of India. Rule 2 (A) of
the said Rules defines the term “Government Servant” as a person who is a
member of a service or holds a civil post under the Union.
Accordingly the Govt should have brought the GDS under the CCS (CCA) Rules 1965
but applied the provisions only for removal and dismissal of ED agents then.
38:2:7 The Govt. of India
appointed a committee headed by Sri Charanjit Talwar, Retired High Court Judge,
Delhi to consider the service condition of the Extra Departmental employees in
the year 1996 after the formation of the Fifth Central Pay Commission for the
regular departmental officials. After a detailed study with regard to the
system and its present existence, the Committee has recommended to treat them
at par with regular civil servants by according them the civil status.
38:2:8 The observations of
the Justice Talwar in his report on this subject are most appropriate. The
following are few of his recommendations in this issue.
"The Extra Departmental Agents have to be included within
the overall class of civil servants, being holders of civil posts. They can be
grouped as ' additional' to the departmental employees, but they cannot be
classified as a class apart from the civil servants. At any rate they cannot be
classified with the sole object of not granting them benefits which accrue to a
departmental employee."
"The plea taken by the Department before the Second and
Third Pay Commission and also before the
various learned Tribunals that ED Agents are a class apart is entirely
misconceived. It is violative of Article 14 and 16 of the Constitution."
38:2:9 Justice Talwar
Committee in its recommendations in the concluding observations held that “they
have been held by the Apex Court
to be civil servants. Therefore, these employees are required in future to be
included within purview of the Pay Commission.” Further, it asserted as
follows:
“It is, therefore, recommended that whenever it is required to
review the service conditions and wage structure of the employees of the
Department of Posts, ED Agents be bracketed along with the departmental
employees. There is no need to set up a separate committee or commission for
the extra departmental agents.”
38:2:10 Even though the
Justice Talwar Committee had recommended that there will be no more separate
committee for the GDS as well as the existence of earlier recommendations of
the Fourth Pay Commission for inclusion of GDS issues into Pay Commission duly
declaring them as holders of civil posts, the Govt did not include the GDS into
the terms of reference of the Sixth Central Pay Commission. The Postal Joint
Council of Action (PJCA) issued indefinite strike notice demanding the
remittance of GDS into Sixth Pay Commission or appoint another judicial
committee as if appointed at the time of Fifth Pay Commission headed with the
former Judge of Delhi Justice Charanjit Talwar as 90% of his recommendations
were simply rejected particularly in not grant of civil status to the GDS. The
indefinite strike was deferred after reaching an agreement which is furnished inter alia:
“Appointment of Judicial Committee/ Commission for GDS and grant
status and pension to GDS employees”
Staff Side was apprised that in view of the special status of
GDS, they were out of the purview of JCM scheme which also takes them beyond
the scope of 6th Central Pay Commission. However, the Staff
Side insisted on another attempt to be made for consideration of GDS issues by
the 6th CPC set up for Central Govt
employees. The request of the Staff side that the matter may be referred to 6th
Central
Pay Commission by the department has been considered. The Department will make
the request to the Government that 6th Central
Pay Commission may look into GDS also.
38:2:11
The Department unilaterally constituted a committee headed by Sri. R. S.
NatarajaMurthy, a retired officer of the Department despite
strong resentment and objections raised by the staff side of the Department of
Posts. The said committee has endevoured to set aside all the positive
recommendations of the earlier justice committee and justify the exploitation
of the GDS by declaring them not the holder of civil post and cannot claim any
service conditions at par with regular Government servants.
38:3
PLEADINGS BY THE STAFF SIDE JCM
NATIONAL COUNCIL
38:3:1 As we had the bitter
experiments last time, the Staff Side of the Postal Department insisted the
Staff Side, National Council JCM to include in the terms of reference for the
Pay Commission about the consideration of GDS to be remitted to the Seventh Pay
Commission and the Staff Side has included this item in the staff side proposal
as one of the terms of reference for the ensuing Seventh Pay Commission.
38:3:2 During the Sixth Pay
Commission, the Government has set aside our request as the GDS are not under
the purview of the JCM Scheme. Now the Govt during the informal discussion held with the staff side on
finalisation of agenda items for the next JCM National Council has accepted the
request of the Staff Side of the JCM National Council and agreed to discuss the
GDS demands in the ensuing National Council JCM.
38:3:3 In the meantime, the
National Federation of postal employees conducted two days strike on 12 &13th
Feb
2014 demanding to remit the GDS issues to the Seventh Pay Commission. The
Postal department based on the demand has referred the case to DOPT to clarify
the 4th Central Pay Commission’s observation in para 1.10 that the
expression of Central Govt employees has not been defined based on which a
final view over the inclusion of Gramin Dak Sevaks within the purview of 7th
CPC
becomes possible. The Department has communicated to National Federation of
Postal Employees that our demand for inclusion of GDS in the 7th
Central
Pay Commission has been referred to DOP&T for a decision in the matter.
38:4 We Pray
38:4:1 Under these
circumstances, we are submitting that the issues of the GDS may please be
considered by the Seventh Pay Commission itself and render justice to this poor
plighted category as if Justice Talwar Concluded his report with the
observation that “the weak and Down trodden need protection.
38:4:2 Detailed memorandum
regarding the revision of wages and service conditions of the Gramin Dak Sewaks
will be submitted by the GDS unions of NFPE & FNPO
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