Himachal: Senior Officer cannot be paid less than Junior; High Court issues order

April 4, 2026

The Himachal Pradesh High Court has held that a senior employee in any department is not liable to receive a lower salary than their junior. A single-judge bench comprising Justice Jia Lal Bhardwaj has directed the government to grant the petitioner a pay scale (step-up pay) equivalent to that of their junior.

The Court observed that even if a junior employee is promoted earlier, once the senior employee is subsequently promoted to the same cadre, they regain their seniority. It is an established principle of law that a senior officer cannot be paid less than their junior. Should such an anomaly arise, the government is obligated to raise the senior employee’s salary to bring it on par with that of the junior.

The Court declared the department’s order dated March 16, 2012—which had rejected the petitioner’s claim—as illegal and set it aside, citing a violation of the Fundamental Rules (FR 22).

The government was directed to fix the petitioner’s salary at a level equal to that of their juniors. The petitioner is to be granted this benefit on a notional basis, and on an actual basis with retrospective effect from three years prior to the filing of the petition. If the arrears are not disbursed within three months, the department shall also be liable to pay an annual interest of 6 percent on the outstanding amount. The petitioner was recruited as a Forest Range Officer in 1961.

In the seniority list, he ranked significantly higher than his colleagues. However, as his junior belonged to a reserved category, the latter was promoted on an *ad hoc* basis as early as 1979, whereas the petitioner’s promotion took place in 1982.

Following the promotions, a situation arose—effective from January 1, 1996—where the junior employee, having been promoted earlier, began drawing a higher salary than his senior. The department had rejected the petitioner’s demand for a “step-up” (pay increment) on the grounds that the junior employee had completed 16 years of service in the higher post prior to the petitioner.