Grant of 1st A Pass to Asstt. Audit Officers (AAOs) - Not permitted

Reference is invited to Director General (Railways) U.O.I. No. 686-Rly/Passes-PTOs/17-11/2005 dated 24-02-2011 & 26-04-2011 regarding grant of 1st ‘A’ Pass to Asstt. Audit Officers (AAOs) working in the Railway Audit.

The matter has been examined in the Ministry of Railways. It has been observed that AAOs are comparable to their counterparts in Railway Accounts Department viz. SSO (Accounts) whose Grade Pay has also been fixed at Rs.4800/- in pursuance of 6th CPC recommendations. They, however, continues to be in Group ‘C’ category and hence not eligible for 1st Class ‘A’ Pass.

Apex Court in one of its Judgments had earlier observed that if the contentions of the Assistant Audit Officers are accepted, they would lead to unjust results on the Indian Railways as the persons belonging to foreign Department would enjoy higher privileges as compared to their own employees performing comparable functions.

It is pertinent to mention that Railway Servants (including Accounts staff) are granted benefits of railway passes as a part of their service conditions as per provisions of Railway Servant Pass Rules whereas the benefit of passes to the staff of CAG has been extended purely as a goodwill gesture.

Accordingly, extending the benefit of passes to staff of CAG which are not admissible to their counterpart accounts staff/analogous supervisors of other core departments of the Railways would be anomalous.