IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB & HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH Civil Writ Petition No.15135 of 2010 Date of Decision : August 25, 2010. Prithipal Singh Sohal .....Petitioner versus State of Punjab and others .....Respondents CORAM : HON'BLE MR.JUSTICE SURYA KANT. Present : Mr.Ravi Kant Sharma, Advocate, for the petitioner. Mr.K.D.S.Sidhu, Deputy Advocate General, Punjab. -.- 1. Whether Reporters of Local papers may be allowed to see the judgment? 2. To be referred to the Reporters or not? 3. Whether the judgment should be reported in the Digest? --- Surya Kant, J. (Oral) Notice of motion. Mr.K.D.S.Sidhu, learned Deputy Advocate General, Punjab, accepts notice on behalf of the respondents. In view of the nature of order which I propose to pass, there is no need to seek any counter-reply from the respondents at this stage. The petitioner seeks a mandamus to direct the respondents to provide him the Monthly Maintenance Grant and other monetary benefits in terms of the Government Policy dated 14.1.1986 (Annexure P-3) which has been further revised from time to time. The aforesaid policy is meant for rehabilitation of those who deserted the Indian Army as an aftermath of C.W.P.No .15135 of 2010 2 the operation `Blue Star' held in the year 1984. It appears that State Government denied the benefits admissible under the Police to the petitioner on the plea that his name did not figure in the list of Army deserters. The petitioner thereafter applied to the Army authorities who have verified and confirmed that the name of the petitioner is included amongst the Army deserters. The petitioner has also placed on record the document(s) to this effect. The petitioner has also forwarded the verification report issued by the Army authorities to the respondent- authorities as is evident from the memo dated 5.5.2009 (Annexure P-24) sent by the Department of Defence Services Welfare (Defence Welfare Branch), Punjab Government to the Director Sainik Welfare, Punjab, Chandigarh. The grievance of the petitioner is that the unending correspondence between different wings/departments of the State Government has yielded no results and he is being deprived of the Monthly Maintenance Grant and other monetary benefits in a totally arbitrary and discriminatory manner. Having heard learned counsel for the parties and since the claim of the petitioner for the grant of Monthly Maintenance Grant/other monetary benefits as per the Government policy appears to be under consideration of the respondents, I deem it appropriate to dispose of this writ petition with a direction to the respondent-authorities to decide and communicate the petitioner's claim within a period of two months from the C.W.P.No .15135 of 2010 3 date of receiving a certified copy of this order. It is made clear that if the petitioner is found entitled to, the consequential monetary benefits shall be released to him within a period of one month thereafter. Dasti. August 25, 2010 (SURYA KANT) Mohinder JUDGE