Retrospective Parity in Additional Salary for Vigilance Police Personnel: Commentary on The State of Bihar v. Satya Narayan Ram (Patna High Court, 19 November 2025)

Retrospective Parity in Additional Salary for Vigilance Police Personnel
Commentary on The State of Bihar v. Satya Narayan Ram, Patna High Court, LPA No. 485 of 2022 (Judgment dated 19 November 2025)

1. Introduction

The decision of the Patna High Court in The State of Bihar v. Satya Narayan Ram concerns the application of the constitutional doctrine of equality to financial benefits granted to government employees, specifically non-gazetted police personnel posted in the Vigilance Investigation Bureau (VIB), Patna.

At the centre of the dispute were two resolutions of the Home (Police) Department, Government of Bihar:

  • Resolution No. 6185 dated 27.08.2015, granting an additional one month’s salary annually to specified categories of non-gazetted police personnel (e.g. Fire Service, GRP, BMP, District Police), but not including the Vigilance Investigation Bureau; and
  • Resolution No. 5290 dated 30.06.2017, which extended the same benefit to police personnel of the Vigilance Investigation Bureau, but only prospectively from 30.06.2017 (by virtue of Clause 6).

The key question was whether employees of the Vigilance Investigation Bureau were entitled to this additional one month’s salary retrospectively for the years 2015–2016 and 2016–2017, on the footing that they were always similarly situated to their counterparts in other police units who had been enjoying the benefit since 27.08.2015.

The Letters Patent Appeal (LPA) was filed by the State of Bihar and its senior officials against a Single Judge’s judgment in a writ petition (C.W.J.C. No. 1773 of 2021), which had directed the State to grant this additional pay to Vigilance Bureau personnel from 27.08.2015 and treat their exclusion in 2015 as a mere “technical error”.

The Division Bench (Acting Chief Justice Sudhir Singh and Justice Rajesh Kumar Verma) dismissed the State’s appeal, partially invalidated the prospective clause in the 2017 Resolution, and affirmed the right of Vigilance Investigation Bureau personnel to parity for the financial years 2015–2016 and 2016–2017.

2. Factual Background and Procedural History

2.1 The 2015 Resolution – Additional Salary for Certain Police Units

By Resolution No. 6185 dated 27.08.2015, the Home (Police) Department, Bihar:

  • Decided to grant an additional salary equivalent to one month’s pay, each financial year, to non-gazetted police personnel and officers of specified units of the Bihar Police: Fire Service, Government Railway Police (GRP), Bihar Military Police (BMP), District Police, etc.
  • The justification was to compensate them for work performed during “leaves and holidays, gazetted and/or non-gazetted”, i.e. the continuous nature of their duties without enjoying usual holidays.
  • The Vigilance Investigation Bureau was not mentioned in this Resolution.

2.2 Grievances of Vigilance Investigation Bureau Personnel

Police personnel in the Vigilance Investigation Bureau, Patna, claimed that:

  • Their work profile—station duty, conducting traps, executing summons and warrants, investigations, and working on Sundays and holidays—was substantially similar to that of the other specialised police units who had received the additional pay.
  • They belonged ultimately to the same parent body (Bihar Police).
  • Their exclusion from the 2015 scheme was arbitrary and discriminatory.

They made representations seeking parity with their counterparts in other units. On 15.02.2018, the Inspector General of Police (Budget/Appeal/Welfare), Bihar, issued Letter No. 136 recommending that Vigilance Investigation Bureau personnel be granted additional one month’s salary for 2015–2016 and 2016–2017 as per the 2015 Resolution. However, the Finance Department declined concurrence for retrospective benefit.

2.3 The 2017 Resolution – Extension to Vigilance Bureau, but Prospective Only

Responding to the demand for parity, the Home (Police) Department issued Resolution No. 5290 dated 30.06.2017. This:

  • Extended the benefit of payment of one month’s additional salary annually to police personnel/officers of specified ranks serving in the Vigilance Investigation Bureau, Patna;
  • Provided, in Clause 6, that this benefit would operate prospectively from 30.06.2017.

Thus, while the State ultimately recognised that Vigilance Investigation Bureau personnel were entitled to the same scheme, it chose to confine the financial benefit to the period after 30.06.2017.

2.4 Writ Petition and Single Judge’s Decision

Aggrieved, certain Vigilance Investigation Bureau personnel, including Satya Narayan Ram, filed C.W.J.C. No. 1773 of 2021, asserting:

  • That the omission to mention the Vigilance Investigation Bureau in the 2015 Resolution was a technical or inadvertent error; and
  • That they were entitled to the benefit of the additional one month’s salary from the same date as other similarly placed police personnel, i.e. 27.08.2015.

The learned Single Judge accepted this plea, holding inter alia:

  • The Vigilance Investigation Bureau’s exclusion in 2015 was merely a “technical error”;
  • The 2017 Resolution should be read in continuation of the 2015 policy; and
  • Vigilance Investigation Bureau personnel were entitled to one month’s additional salary for the years 2015–2016 and 2016–2017, to be calculated and paid within three months.

2.5 Letters Patent Appeal by the State

The State of Bihar and senior departmental officers challenged this decision in Letters Patent Appeal No. 485 of 2022, raising a narrow but significant legal issue:

Core question: Whether the benefit given by the 2017 policy (Resolution No. 5290) to Vigilance Investigation Bureau personnel could be extended retrospectively from 27.08.2015, or whether it must operate only prospectively from 30.06.2017 as specified in the Resolution.

3. Issues Before the Court

The Division Bench considered essentially one central issue:

  • Whether the State’s policy decision dated 30.06.2017, extending the benefit of an additional month’s salary to personnel of the Vigilance Investigation Bureau, could validly be made operative only prospectively (from 30.06.2017), or whether constitutional principles of equality required that it operate retrospectively from 27.08.2015 so as to cover the financial years 2015–2016 and 2016–2017.

Implicit within this were subsidiary questions:

  • Whether the Vigilance Investigation Bureau personnel formed part of the same class as other non-gazetted police personnel covered by the 2015 Resolution;
  • Whether the State could invoke financial implications and policy freedom to justify a later cut-off date for Vigilance personnel; and
  • Whether the Court could partially invalidate or “read down” the prospective clause of a governmental resolution on grounds of equality.

4. Summary of the Judgment

The Division Bench dismissed the State’s appeal and substantially affirmed the Single Judge’s decision, with a slightly different formulation of the relief. The main holdings are:

  • Resolution No. 5290 dated 30.06.2017 is set aside only to the limited extent that it makes the benefit of additional one month’s salary applicable prospectively, i.e. Clause 6 prescribing prospective operation is invalidated.
  • The Court holds that employees of the Vigilance Investigation Bureau are entitled to an additional one month’s salary for the financial years 2015–2016 and 2016–2017.
  • This conclusion is stated to be in consonance with, and “reiterated” by, the Supreme Court’s equal pay and equality jurisprudence, especially P. Savita v. Union of India and State of Punjab v. Jagjit Singh.
  • The Letters Patent Appeal filed by the State of Bihar is found to be without merit and is dismissed.
  • Any pending interlocutory applications are also disposed of.

In essence, the High Court converts what was a purely prospective extension of a beneficial scheme into an extension with limited retrospective effect, so as to eradicate the discriminatory temporal gap between Vigilance Investigation Bureau personnel and other similarly placed police personnel.

5. Detailed Analysis

5.1 Policy Framework and the Nature of the Benefit

The benefit in question—an annual payment of additional salary equivalent to one month’s pay— was conceived as a form of compensatory remuneration for police personnel who, owing to the nature of their duties, were compelled to work on:

  • Gazetted holidays,
  • Non-gazetted holidays, and
  • Other leaves or rest days normally available to government employees.

The 2015 Resolution recognised that certain branches of the police (Fire Service, GRP, BMP, District Police, etc.) uniformly operated under these constraints and accordingly created a scheme to compensate that continuous and onerous service. Vigilance Investigation Bureau personnel, though performing similar continuous and investigative functions, were not included.

When, in 2017, the same benefit was extended to them, the State effectively acknowledged parity of conditions and duties. The only question that remained was temporal: since when should that parity be recognised for pay purposes?

5.2 Arguments of the Parties

5.2.1 State/Appellants

The State relied substantially on:

  • The principle that orders or resolutions granting monetary benefits (pay, allowances, emoluments) are ordinarily prospective unless there is an express indication of retrospective operation.
  • A characterization of the 2017 Resolution as an independent policy decision—not a mere correction of the 2015 Resolution—and hence properly made operative from its own date.
  • The financial burden involved in granting retrospective benefits, supported by the Supreme Court’s observations in State of Punjab v. Amar Nath Goyal, emphasising that financial implications may legitimately influence the State’s decision to fix a cut-off date for such benefits.
  • The contention that the omission of Vigilance Investigation Bureau in 2015 could not be brushed aside as a “technical error”; it represented a conscious policy choice.

On this basis, the State argued that:

  • The Vigilance Investigation Bureau personnel could claim the additional one month’s salary only from 30.06.2017 onwards, strictly in terms of Resolution No. 5290;
  • The Single Judge had erred in giving retrospective effect to that Resolution by relating it back to 27.08.2015.

5.2.2 Respondents/Writ Petitioners

The respondents, represented by counsel for the writ petitioners, relied on the following key propositions:

  • The work profile and nature of responsibilities of Vigilance Investigation Bureau personnel were substantially similar to those of the other police units that had been granted the benefit in 2015. Their duties included:
    • Station duty,
    • Conducting trap operations,
    • Executing and complying with summons/warrants,
    • Investigative work, including on Sundays and holidays.
  • Other investigative/specialised units of Bihar Police, such as the Crime Investigation Department, Special Branch, Economic Offences Unit, Special Investigation Unit, Training Centres, Police Academy, etc., were already receiving this additional annual payment.
  • The Inspector General of Police (Budget/Appeal/Welfare) had expressly recommended that Vigilance Investigation Bureau personnel be granted the benefit for the years 2015–2016 and 2016–2017, reflecting an internal acknowledgment that their earlier exclusion was unjustified.
  • The differential treatment, especially the temporal discrimination introduced by the purely prospective cut-off (30.06.2017), violated the constitutional guarantee of equality (Article 14) and the doctrine of “equal pay for equal work”.

They relied on the Supreme Court’s decisions in:

  • P. Savita v. Union of India (1985 Supp SCC 94) – on invalidity of unjustified classification among identically situated employees; and
  • State of Punjab v. Jagjit Singh ((2017) 1 SCC 148) – restating in detail the doctrine of “equal pay for equal work”, drawing from the landmark decision in Randhir Singh v. Union of India.

Their core contention was that once the State had, in 2017, formally recognised parity in duties and status, it could not arbitrarily deny parity in pay for the period when that parity in work already existed (2015–2017).

5.3 Precedents Cited and Their Role

5.3.1 State of Punjab v. Amar Nath Goyal (2005) 6 SCC 754

The State relied on this case to justify its prospective operation of the 2017 benefit. In Amar Nath Goyal, the Supreme Court, while dealing with retiral benefits and cut-off dates, observed that:

  • Financial impact of making rules or regulations retrospective can, in itself, be a legitimate and sufficient consideration for the State in fixing a cut-off date.
  • Courts should be slow to interfere with a cut-off date fixed by the executive if it is not arbitrary or irrational.
  • The High Court in that case had erred in altering the cut-off date fixed by the State.

Paragraph 32, quoted in the present judgment, specifically recalls an earlier decision (State of Rajasthan v. Amrit Lal Gandhi) where the Court upheld a cut-off date justified solely on the ground of financial burden.

In Satya Narayan Ram, the State invoked this principle to argue that:

  • The State had the discretion to decide that Vigilance Investigation Bureau personnel would receive the additional benefit only from 30.06.2017; and
  • The financial implications of retrospective extension justified such prospective limitation.

The Patna High Court, however, implicitly found this reliance insufficient where the cut-off date produced discrimination among a homogenous class of employees.

5.3.2 P. Savita v. Union of India (1985 Supp SCC 94)

In P. Savita, the Supreme Court considered the classification between:

  • Senior Draughtsmen promoted from within the cadre; and
  • Senior Draughtsmen directly recruited.

Despite performing identical duties and functions, only one group was granted a higher pay scale, while the others were kept on the scale of ordinary Draughtsmen even after promotion. The Court held:

  • There was no rational basis for such differentiation in pay among those discharging the same duties.
  • The classification violated Article 14 and was struck down.
  • Denial of appropriate pay after promotion was “destructive of all incentive and initiative in the service”.

The Patna High Court quotes paragraph 17 of this decision, which stresses that classification without a rational basis among employees performing the same duties is unconstitutional.

Applied to the present case, P. Savita supports the view that:

  • Once Vigilance Investigation Bureau personnel and other specialised police units were similarly placed in terms of work and responsibilities, they could not be placed in an inferior financial position for an overlapping period (2015–2017).

5.3.3 State of Punjab v. Jagjit Singh (2017) 1 SCC 148

Jagjit Singh is a major exposition of the principle of “equal pay for equal work”. The Court there held that:

  • Temporary/daily wage employees, if performing the same duties and responsibilities as regular employees, are entitled to the same pay (at least the minimum of the pay scale of their regular counterparts).
  • The doctrine flows from Articles 14, 16 and 39(d), as first articulated in Randhir Singh v. Union of India.

The Patna High Court quotes:

  • Paragraph 7 – summarising Randhir Singh, where a Driver-Constable in Delhi Police was held entitled to the same pay as drivers in other government departments in Delhi because they discharged identical duties; and
  • Paragraph 42.5 – which sets out the test for determining equality of functions and responsibilities for the purpose of “equal pay for equal work”.

Paragraph 42.5 emphasises that:

  • The duties of the two posts must be of equal sensitivity and qualitatively similar;
  • Differences in degree of responsibility, reliability, confidentiality, etc., can justify pay differentiation (valid classification);
  • The nature and volume of work, and level of responsibility must be comparable; otherwise, parity cannot be claimed.

Although Jagjit Singh primarily dealt with temporary vs. regular employees, its articulation of the equality standard applies more broadly. In the present case:

  • The respondents argued that Vigilance Investigation Bureau personnel performed work of equal sensitivity and responsibility as other units (Crime Investigation Dept, Special Branch, etc.) already receiving the benefit;
  • The Patna High Court, relying on this jurisprudence, implicitly accepted that Vigilance personnel passing this equality test could not be placed at a temporal disadvantage for 2015–2017.

5.3.4 Randhir Singh v. Union of India and Related Precedents

Through Jagjit Singh, the Patna High Court indirectly affirms the reasoning in Randhir Singh v. Union of India, where:

  • A Driver-Constable in Delhi Police was placed in a lower pay scale than drivers in other government departments, despite discharging identical or more onerous duties;
  • The Court held that the principle of “equal pay for equal work” applies to the State and is enforceable under Articles 14 and 16, read with the directive under Article 39(d).

Further, Jagjit Singh summarises a host of other Supreme Court precedents (e.g., Federation of All India Customs and Central Excise Stenographers, SBI, J.P. Chaurasia, Grih Kalyan Kendra Workers' Union), which collectively establish that:

  • Courts must examine job content, responsibilities, and sensitivity of duties;
  • Mere difference in administrative control or departmental affiliation does not justify different pay if all other relevant factors are equal.

The Patna High Court’s approach in Satya Narayan Ram is firmly anchored in this line of authority.

5.4 The Court’s Legal Reasoning

Although the reported text of the judgment is concise, the Bench’s reasoning can be reconstructed from the issues framed, precedents cited, and the relief granted.

5.4.1 Identification of a Homogenous Class

The first step in the reasoning is to treat non-gazetted police personnel across different specialised units (Crime Investigation Department, Special Branch, Economic Offences Unit, Vigilance Investigation Bureau, etc.) as forming a single homogenous class for the purpose of this particular benefit, because:

  • They all discharge investigative and field duties;
  • Their work frequently extends to holidays and rest days;
  • They face similar risk profiles and operational demands; and
  • They are structurally part of the same overarching organisation—Bihar Police.

The State itself acknowledged this homogeneity when, in 2017, it extended the same benefit to Vigilance Investigation Bureau personnel.

5.4.2 Characterisation of the 2017 Resolution

The State portrayed the 2017 Resolution as an independent policy decision unconnected with the 2015 Resolution. The Single Judge (and implicitly the Division Bench) took a different view:

  • The 2017 Resolution was, in substance, a continuation and correction of the 2015 policy, designed to include a set of employees who had been unjustifiably left out.
  • The earlier omission of the Vigilance Investigation Bureau was treated as a technical or inadvertent error, not a conscious decision grounded in intelligible differentia.

By affirming the grant of retrospective benefit despite the State’s reliance on a prospective clause, the Division Bench accepted the essential premise that the Vigilance personnel should always have been part of the beneficiary class.

5.4.3 Unconstitutional Temporal Discrimination

Once the Vigilance Investigation Bureau personnel are recognised as part of the same homogenous class as other non-gazetted police personnel covered by the 2015 Resolution, the issue becomes one of temporal discrimination:

  • From 27.08.2015, all similarly placed police personnel other than Vigilance staff received the additional month’s salary;
  • Vigilance personnel, despite performing comparable work, were denied this benefit for 2015–2016 and 2016–2017 solely because they were not initially included and the 2017 correction was confined prospectively.

Under the equality jurisprudence summarised in P. Savita and Jagjit Singh, such intra-class discrimination—where the only differentiating factor is the date of formal recognition of an existing parity in work—is constitutionally suspect unless justified by cogent reasons.

The judgment strongly implies that:

  • There was no rational basis to treat Vigilance Investigation Bureau personnel differently for the earlier period (2015–2017); and
  • Their continued exclusion during those years violated Article 14.

5.4.4 Limited Role of Financial Considerations

The State sought refuge in Amar Nath Goyal to argue that financial impact alone can justify a prospective cut-off date. The Patna High Court’s approach indicates that:

  • While financial implications can be a valid policy consideration in choosing a cut-off date, they cannot sustain a cut-off that otherwise results in unconstitutional discrimination.
  • Where employees are demonstrably similarly situated and the State has already acknowledged their entitlement to parity, financial burden cannot be the sole ground to deny them the benefit for a portion of the period.

Thus, the Court implicitly distinguishes situations where:

  • A new benefit is being introduced and the State chooses a prospective cut-off (usually permissible); from
  • A benefit is extended to cure an earlier unjustified exclusion of a group that was always similarly situated (where a purely prospective fix may perpetuate the earlier illegality).

5.4.5 Partial Invalidation of Clause 6 of the 2017 Resolution

The Court adopts a precise remedial technique:

  • It does not strike down the entire 2017 Resolution;
  • Instead, it sets aside Resolution No. 5290 “only to the extent” that, by virtue of Clause 6, it confined the benefit to prospective operation.

The effect of this is:

  • The decision to extend the additional salary to Vigilance Investigation Bureau personnel remains intact (and thus the class is broadened); but
  • The temporal limitation which created intra-class discrimination is removed, thereby allowing the respondents to claim the benefit for 2015–2016 and 2016–2017.

This is a classic instance of a court reading down or partially invalidating a policy measure to bring it in line with constitutional requirements, rather than quashing it wholesale.

5.4.6 Affirmation of the Single Judge’s Relief

The Division Bench concludes:

  • “We hold that the respondents are entitled for additional one month salary for the year 2015–2016 and 2016–2017…”
  • The State’s appeal “has no merit” and is dismissed.

Thus, while the formal reasoning is concise, the Court clearly embraces the equality-based approach of the Single Judge and the Supreme Court precedents, preferring substantive parity over formalistic adherence to a prospective clause in the Resolution.

5.5 Impact and Significance

5.5.1 Strengthening Equality in Pay-Related Policies

The judgment reinforces a key principle:

When a later policy decision acknowledges that a previously excluded group of employees is in fact similarly situated to an already-benefited group, courts may require that the benefit operate retrospectively to the extent necessary to remove the earlier discrimination.

This has important implications for:

  • Wage and allowance schemes in public employment;
  • Regularisation and parity claims of employees in specialised or newly formed units;
  • Challenges to arbitrary cut-off dates that divide homogenous classes of employees.

5.5.2 Limits on Fiscal Justifications

While not rejecting Amar Nath Goyal, the judgment implicitly limits its reach by signalling that:

  • Fiscal concerns cannot be a blanket justification to uphold a discriminatory cut-off date where the State has already accepted parity in principle;
  • Equality and non-arbitrariness remain the governing norms even in the realm of pay and allowances.

5.5.3 Administrative Practice: Internal Recommendations as Evidence

The case also highlights the evidentiary value of internal administrative documents, such as the letter of the Inspector General (Budget/Appeal/Welfare), which:

  • Acknowledged the similarity of work between Vigilance Investigation Bureau personnel and other police units;
  • Recommended retrospective extension of benefits;
  • Was ultimately not accepted by the Finance Department.

Such documents can significantly strengthen employees’ claims that they have been arbitrarily excluded from benefits they ought to have received.

5.5.4 Immediate Practical Consequences

For the Vigilance Investigation Bureau personnel involved:

  • They are entitled to an additional one month’s salary for each of the financial years 2015–2016 and 2016–2017, in addition to future entitlement from 2017 onwards under the existing Resolution.
  • The State is bound to calculate and disburse this amount.

For the administration:

  • The State must revisit similar policies to ensure that any subsequent extension of benefits to previously excluded but similarly situated employees does not arbitrarily confine such extension to a prospective date.
  • Future policy-making must more carefully assess the homogeneity of employee groups to avoid discrimination challenges.

6. Complex Concepts Simplified

6.1 Letters Patent Appeal (LPA)

An LPA is an appeal from the judgment of a Single Judge of a High Court to a Division Bench (two or more Judges) of the same High Court. It is provided under the High Court’s Letters Patent (a kind of charter). In this case:

  • The Single Judge decided the writ petition in favour of the employees;
  • The State challenged that decision before a Division Bench via an LPA.

6.2 Prospective vs. Retrospective Operation

  • Prospective operation means a law or policy applies only from a certain date onwards; it does not affect past periods.
  • Retrospective operation means the law or policy is applied to periods before its formal date of issuance, thereby conferring or affecting rights and obligations for the earlier period.

Here, the controversy was whether the 2017 Resolution should:

  • Apply only for the future (from 30.06.2017); or
  • Also cover the earlier period (2015–2017) where parity in work already existed.

6.3 Cut-off Date

A “cut-off date” is the specific date from which a particular policy or benefit becomes applicable. Governments often fix such dates for administrative and financial reasons. Courts generally accept such dates so long as they are not:

  • Arbitrary, or
  • Discriminatory, or
  • Without any reasonable justification.

In this case, 30.06.2017 was the cut-off date assigned for VIB personnel, and the Court found that, under equality principles, this could not be rigidly enforced to deny them benefits for 2015–2017.

6.4 “Equal Pay for Equal Work”

This constitutional doctrine means:

  • If two sets of employees are doing the same or substantially similar work, with comparable duties, responsibilities, and sensitivity, the State should not pay them differently without a valid, rational reason.
  • It is grounded in Articles 14 and 16 (equality and equality in public employment), and Article 39(d) (equal pay for equal work for both men and women).

In simple terms: if your work is the same as your colleague’s, and you both serve the government in comparable conditions, the government cannot arbitrarily pay one of you less than the other.

6.5 Partial Invalidation / Reading Down

Courts sometimes find that only part of a rule or policy is unconstitutional. In such cases, they may:

  • Strike down only the offending portion (e.g., a particular clause); or
  • Read down the provision, giving it a narrower or modified interpretation that makes it constitutional.

Here, the Court:

  • Set aside Resolution No. 5290 only “to the extent” it gave purely prospective effect (Clause 6);
  • Left the rest of the Resolution, including the extension of benefit to Vigilance Investigation Bureau personnel, completely intact.

7. Conclusion

The State of Bihar v. Satya Narayan Ram is a significant service law and constitutional law decision from the Patna High Court. It establishes that:

  • Once the State recognises that a group of employees is similarly situated to another group already receiving a particular financial benefit, it cannot arbitrarily restrict the newly granted parity to the future alone if the work parity existed earlier as well.
  • The doctrine of “equal pay for equal work” and the prohibition on irrational classification under Article 14 can require not only extension of a benefit to a previously excluded class but also its retrospective application for a limited past period to cure discrimination.
  • Financial burden, while relevant, cannot by itself justify a discriminatory cut-off date, particularly where the State itself has accepted functional parity of duties.

By partially invalidating the prospective clause in the 2017 Resolution and granting retrospective benefit for 2015–2016 and 2016–2017, the Patna High Court underscores a broader constitutional message: when the State corrects an earlier exclusion of a similarly situated class of employees, it must correct it in a manner that truly removes—rather than perpetuates—the inequality.

Case Details

Year: 2025
Court: Patna High Court

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