CWP No. 14183 of 2008 1 IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH CWP No. 14183 of 2008 (O&M) Date of Decision: March 19, 2009 Atma Ram ...... Petitioner Versus State of Haryana and others ...... Respondents Coram: Hon'ble Mr. Justice Ajay Tewari Present: Mr. Rakesh Nagpal, Advocate for the petitioner. Mr. Harish Rathee, Senior DAG, Haryana. **** 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? Ajay Tewari, J. The petitioner is aggrieved by the order of the respondents in not allowing him to join the duties even though he has been duly selected as a driver in the Transport Department. The plea taken by the respondents is that the petitioner did not have the necessary experience of two years of driving of transport vehicles. The petitioner has annexed certificate dated 5.7.2008 from the Army Authorities certifying that he has worked from 1991 to 2007 as a driver and handled all types of heavy transport vehicles. He has also annexed a copy of his Army driving licence Annexure P-13 which reveals that his licence to drive (i) motor cycles (ii) truck/lorries of 5 CWP No. 14183 of 2008 2 tonnes and under 5 tonnes and (iii) heavy lorries of over 5 tonnes. As far as the advertisement is concerned following stipulation has been made:- “ A candidate must (a) be a citizen of India (b) be of good moral character ( c ) be of sound health (d) not have more than one spouse living ( e) should have passed Matric School examination with Hindi as language subject and should have a Transport Vehicle Driving Licence. The candidate should have at least two years experience of driving a transport vehicle including a passenger vehicle. Eligibility shall be determined with regard to the last date fixed for the receipt of the application form.” In these circumstances the contention of the respondents that the petitioner's civil licence is less than 2 years old and, therefore, he cannot be considered eligible is fallacious. The advertisement as shown above does not contain any stipulation that the civil driving licence should be at least 2 years old. The certificate Annexure P-1 and the Military driving licence Annexure P-13 (a perusal of which reveals that the petitioner has been driving heavy transport vehicles for 16 years) clearly bring him within the ambit of eligibility envisaged by the advertisement. Consequently this writ petition is allowed. The respondents are directed to permit the petitioner to join the service forthwith. No costs. (AJAY TEWARI) JUDGE March 19, 2009 sunita