Lets try to make the reply very simple without going into details of rules or norms followed by the appointing authorities…As far as my experience in this regard is concerned, I have observed that if any senior employee is receiving lesser pay than his junior for any reason beyond the control of the affected employee or more specifically, owing to the policy of the appointing authority /Govt etc in the material time, ie Pay Commission/Promotion etc, then protection is generally considered in favour of the affected employee…Kindly examine the reasons of anomaly to ascertain whether it qualifies for protection or not…..and a word of caution: generally, Pay protection is not allowed for option related anomaly……