UNION OF INDIA vs SHUBHAM PANDEY AND ORS

$~ * IN THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI AT NEW DELHI % Judgment reserved on: 09.02.2026 Judgment pronounced on: 20.02.2026 W.P.(C) 1764/2026, CM APPL. 8584/2026, CM APPL. 8585/2026 UNION OF INDIA .....Petitioner Through: Mr. Nishant Gautam, CGSC with Ms. Kavya Shukla, Mr. Vineet Negi, Mr. Naman Verma, with Officers present- Brigadier Niloy Saha. versus SHUBHAM PANDEY AND ORS .....Respondents Through: Mr. Aditya Narayan Tripathy, Dr. Kedar Nath Tripathy, Mr. Niraj Sinha, Ms. Soumya Punna, Ms. Pallavi Sahu, Advs. CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE ANIL KSHETARPAL HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE AMIT MAHAJAN JUDGMENT AMIT MAHAJAN, J. 1. The present petition has been field assailing the order dated 25.02.2025, passed by the learned Central Administrative Tribunal, Principal Bench, New Delhi (hereinafter ‘CAT’) in O.A. No. 1804/2023 whereby the Petitioner was directed to re-fix the basic of the Respondents by allowing the benefit of pay protection of the pay drawn by the them along with consequential benefits. 2. The quintessential facets governing the present dispute are that the Respondents are Direct Recruit Officers of the Military Engineer Services (‘MSE’) of different Batches, 18 of them are from Indian Defe