Civil Writ Petition No. 18141 of 2008 1 IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH -- Civil Writ Petition No. 18141 of 2008 Date of decision: 20.10.2008 Sumiitar Singh ........Petitioner Versus Financial Commissioner, Animal Husbandry, Punjab Chandigarh and others .......Respondent(s) Coram: Hon'ble Mr. Justice J.S.Khehar Hon'ble Ms Justice Nirmaljit Kaur -.- Present: Mr. Rai Singh Chauhan, Advocate for the petitioner -.- J.S.Khehar , J. (Oral) Through the instant writ petition, the petitioner has challenged the order passed by the Financial Commissioner dated 06.08.2008 (Annexure P-6), by which, the Financial Commissioner has remanded back the case to the Collector, Jalandhar, requiring him to invite fresh applications, for appointment of a new Lambardar. It would be pertinent to mention, that the impugned order dated 06.08.2008 came to be passed consequent upon the process of selection and appointment of Lambardar for Village Dalla, Tehsil and District Jalandhar came to be finalized by the Collector, Jalandhar, vide order dated 16.09.2003. The Collector, Jalandhar had found petitioner, Sumittar Singh, as the best candidate out of those, who had applied for appointment as Lambardar. The appointment of petitioner, Sumittar Singh, had been Civil Writ Petition No. 18141 of 2008 2 challenged through a series of appeals filed by the unsuccessful candidates, including Ishar Singh and Gurmeet Singh. The aforestated appeals were finally disposed of by an order dated 17.02.2005 passed by the Commissioner, Jalandhar Division, Jalandhar. In disposing of the appeals, the appeal preferred by Gurmeet Singh was accepted and one preferred by Ishar Singh was dismissed. In accepting the appeal preferred by Gurmeet Singh, the petitioner, who had been found to be more suitable candidate by the Collector, Jalandhar, was non-suited, and in his place Gurmeet Singh was appointed as Lambardar. A revision petition was filed by Ishar Singh, challenging the appointment of Gurmeet Singh by the Commissioner, Jalandhar Division, Jalandhar. A separate revision was also filed by the petitioner against the order passed by the Commissioner, Jalandhar Division, Jalandhar dated 17.02.2005. During the pendency of the aforesaid two revision petitions, the selected candidate, namely, Gurmeet Singh, died. It is, therefore, that the impugned order dated 06.08.2008 was passed by the Financial Commissioner, remanding back the case to the Collector, Jalandhar, requiring him to invite fresh applications, for appointment of a new Lambardar. The impugned order dated 06.08.2008 is sought to be challenged by asserting, that there were two candidates still available in the fray, and the Financial Commissioner ought to have selected the more meritorious candidates out of the available candidates, rather than starting a process of selection, for appointment to the post of Lambardar de novo. In order to substantiate his claim, learned counsel for the Civil Writ Petition No. 18141 of 2008 3 petitioner has also placed reliance on the decision rendered by this Court in Sat Pal Vs. Financial Commissioner, Appeals, Punjab, Chandigarh and another ( CWP No. 2531 of 2006, decided on 26.03.2007). We have considered the solitary submission advanced by the learned counsel for the petitioner as has been noticed in the aforesaid paragraph. We are, however, not inclined to accept the aforesaid submission of the learned counsel for the petitioner. Needless to mention, that if a de novo process is initiated, there is likelihood of receipt of more applications, and in the said process, the petitioner will have the liberty to re-apply and again compete for the process of selection and appointment. It is in the interest of the village community at large, that the most suitable person is selected as the village headman. We are also of the view that the judgment relied upon by the learned counsel for the petitioner is irrelevant to the issue in hand. For the reasons recorded hereinabove, we find no merit in the instant writ petition and the same is accordingly dismissed. [J.S.Khehar] Judge [Nirmaljit Kaur] Judge October 20, 2008 mohan