Court No. - 1 Case :- SPECIAL APPEAL DEFECTIVE No. - 14 of 2025 Appellant :- State Of U.P. Thru. Its Prin. Secy. Horticulture And 2 Others Respondent :- Arvind Kumar Counsel for Appellant :- C.S.C. Counsel for Respondent :- Anurag Srivastava Hon'ble Attau Rahman Masoodi,J. Hon'ble Subhash Vidyarthi,J. (I.A. No.01 of 2025-Delay Condonation Application) 1. Heard 2. This is an application seeking condonation of delay in filing the instant Special Appeal. 3. Learned counsel for the respondent has not opposed the delay condonation application. 4. Cause shown in the affidavit filed in support of application is sufficient. 5. Application is allowed and delay in filing the instant Special Appeal is condoned. (Order on Appeal) 1. Heard Shri Prafull Yadav, the learned Additional Chief Standing Counsel- appellant- State of U.P. and Shri Sahil Sajjad, Advocate holding brief of Mohd. Ateeq Khan, the learned counsel for the respondent. 2. The instant intra Court Appeal has been filed by the appellant- State of U.P. against judgment and order dated 04.03.2024 passed by an Hon'ble Single Judge of this Court allowing Writ A No.8199 of 2021. 3. The aforesaid writ petition was filed by the respondent challenging an order dated 02.02.2021 passed by the Director Horticulture and Food Processing, U.P. Lucknow and praying for a direction to the respondents to pay minimum of pay-scale for the post of Driver belonging to Class-III category to the petitioner. 4. The petitioner had relied upon a judgment dated 25.01.2009 passed by this Court in Writ Petition No.16326 (S/S) of 2017 titled Ramesh Kumar Yadav v. State of U.P. and Others, which was affirmed by an order dated 18.09.2019 passed in Special Appeal Defective No.338 of 2019. SLP (Civil) No.26625 of 2019 filed by the State against the aforesaid order was dismissed by means of and order dated 22.11.2019. 5. It is recorded in the order passed by the Writ Court that the learned Standing Counsel could not dispute that the case of the petitioner is squarely covered by the aforesaid judgment passed in Ramesh Kumar Yadav (Supra). However, in Appeal, the learned Additional Chief Standing Counsel has submitted that the petitioner's claim for payment of minimum of pay-scale has been rejected by means of an order dated 02.02.2021 on the ground that the petitioner had worked as daily wage labour and there is no provision for payment of minimum of pay-scale to any person appointed as daily wage labour. Further, there is no sanctioned post of Driver in the district. 6. A bare perusal of the order dated 02.02.2021 indicates that the petitioner's claim that he has worked as Driver since the year 2012, has not been disputed. When it is admitted that the petitioner has worked as Driver for more than a decade and when a writ petition filed by another similarly situated person Shri Ramesh Kumar Yadav has been allowed and the judgment has not been interfered with in Special Appeal or even in SLP, we find ourselves in agreement with the view taken by the Hon'ble Single Judge that the petitioner is also entitled to be paid the minimum of pay-scale. 7. There is no force in Special Appeal and accordingly, the Special Appeal is hereby dismissed. . (Subhash Vidyarthi,J.) (A. R. Masoodi,J.) Order Date :- 16.1.2025/-Amit K-/Ram. Digitally signed by :- RAM SINGH High Court of Judicature at Allahabad, Lucknow Bench