Patna High Court Rejects Pay Cut Treating Worker as New Recruit After 42 Years

The Patna High Court criticised an attempt to treat a long-serving worker as a fresh appointee for pay purposes after roughly forty-two years of service.

Background

The employee had worked for decades, including periods on daily wages, before a later administrative action altered the treatment of his service and remuneration.

Legal issue

The dispute concerned whether the State could ignore substantial earlier service through a formal classification that materially reduced pay.

Court’s approach

The Court rejected the approach as inconsistent with fairness in public employment and constitutional standards governing arbitrary administrative action.

What follows

The employee’s pay treatment must reflect the operative judgment. The ruling is fact-sensitive and does not automatically regularise every daily-wage worker.