-1- Civil Writ Petition No.2695 of 2006. IN THE HIGH COURT FOR THE STATES OF PUNJAB & HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH ... Date of Decision: May 05, 2008. Ex Subedar Manjit Singh ... Petitioner VERSUS Union of India and others ... Respondents CORAM : HON'BLE MR.JUSTICE HEMANT GUPTA. HON'BLE MR.JUSTICE MOHINDER PAL. 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 ? Present: Mr. Rajeev Anand, Advocate, for the petitioner. Mr. Heman Aggarwal, Advocate, for the respondents. -.- MOHINDER PAL, J. The facts of this case are that the petitioner was enrolled in the Army on January 10, 1977 and discharged from service with effect from December 01, 2002, as Subedar being -2- Civil Writ Petition No.2695 of 2006. placed in low medical category P2 (permanent). Thereafter, the petitioner served a legal notice for reinstatement into service with all consequential benefits. When this legal notice was not decided, he filed Civil Writ Petition No.102 of 2004 in this Court. This Court, vide order dated January 08, 2004, disposed of the writ petition with a direction to the respondents to take decision on the legal notice submitted by the petitioner. In compliance with the said order of this Court, legal notice served by the petitioner against his discharge from service was considered by the competent authority and he was reinstated into service in the rank in which he was discharged from service with effect from December 01, 2002 vide Annexure R-1 dated May 18, 2004. Consequent upon reinstatement into service, the petitioner joined his duty on July 01, 2004. He was transferred to the pension establishment with effect from February 01, 2005 on fulfilling the terms and conditions of enrolment. After his retirement, the petitioner was granted the Honorary Rank of Subedar Major on the eve of Independence Day 2005 vide Annexure P-6 dated August 19, 2005. In this petition filed under Articles 226/227 of the Constitution of India, the petitioner has prayed for issuance of a writ in the nature of mandamus directing the respondents to consider the petitioner for the grant of Honorary Commission in the respondent-Department as per the merit list of Independence Day 2004 and Republic Day 2005. -3- Civil Writ Petition No.2695 of 2006. In the written statement filed by the respondents, it has been pleaded that name of the petitioner was considered by Board of Officers for grant of Honorary Commission to the rank of Lieutenant on the occasion of Republic Day 2005, but he was not granted the same due to low profile. It is further pleaded that as per the existing policy, Honorary Commission is granted to eligible Subedars and Subedar Majors on active list on the occasion of Republic Day and Independence Day based on merit, vis-a-vis the number of vacancies available. Every Subudar/Subedar Major is recommended for two chances for grant of Honorary Commission before his discharge from service on fulfilling the conditions of enrolment. The recommendations in regard to eligible Junior Commissioned Officers for grant of Honorary Commission on each occasion are submitted to Army Headquarters and if the vacancies are less, all officers cannot be considered. All officers are considered on the basis of their respective merit. The petitioner was not granted Honorary Commission after considering his merit. It has also been pleaded that as the petitioner had re-joined his duty on July 01, 2004, in pursuance of the order dated May 18, 2004 (Annexure R-1), it was not feasible to submit recommendation for grant of Honorary Commission to him on the occasion of Independence Day, 2004, as the recommendations were required to be submitted latest by February 10, 2004. We have heard Mr. Rajeev Anand, Advocate, appearing -4- Civil Writ Petition No.2695 of 2006. for the petitioner and Mr.Heman Aggarwal, Advocate, appearing for the respondents, and have gone through the records of the case. At the outset, it may be mentioned that Honorary Commission cannot be claimed as a matter of statutory right. Honorary Commission is an award which is granted to only those who come up in merit within the limited number of vacancies available. As stated above, name of the petitioner was considered by the Board of Officers for granting him the Honorary Commission to the rank of Lieutenant on the occasion of Republic Day 2005. However, he was not granted the same due to low profile. The entire service record of the petitioner was perused by the Board of Officers at the time of considering his name for the purpose of making recommendations for Honorary Commission vis-a-vis other candidates and the number of vacancies available and he was found low in merit. We do not find anything on record which may point out that the prescribed procedure for making recommendations for Honorary Commission was deviated by the Board of Officers in case of the petitioner warranting interference by this Court in exercise of its writ jurisdiction. Consequently, we do not find any merit in this writ petition and dismiss the same. ( HEMANT GUPTA ) ( MOHINDER PAL ) JUDGE JUDGE May 05 , 2008. ak