IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB & HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH Civil Writ Petition No.1706 of 2010 (O&M) Date of Decision : February 02, 2010. Harish Chander Puri .....Petitioner versus State of Punjab and others .....Respondents CORAM : HON'BLE MR.JUSTICE SURYA KANT. Present : Mr.Amrik Singh, Advocate, for the petitioner. -.- 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? --- ORDER Surya Kant, J. (Oral) The petitioner seeks quashing of the order dated 26.11.2009 (Annexure P-2) whereby respondent No.4 has refused to entertain the option exercised by the petitioner on 24.10.2007 for the grant of ACP. The petitioner also seeks a direction for release of the arrears of the increment, with-held without any cumulative effect vide order dated 27.6.2000 but as a result of departmental action. The petitioner further seeks a direction for the release of his annual increment which is stated to have been with-held w.e.f. 1.1.2008. As regards the first issue, the petitioner's case is that the cut off date of 27.10.2007 was never informed nor was it ever circulated amongst the teachers. The petitioner, therefore, could exercise no option C.W.P.No .1706 of 2010 (O&M) 2 before any such cut off date. As regard to the other two issues, the petitioner has pointed out that his increment was stopped without cumulative effect and after expiry of one year, the same is liable to be restored but no action has been taken by the competent authority despite the repeated representations made by the petitioner. I have heard learned counsel for the petitioner at some length and perused the Government Policy dated 3.11.2006 (Annexure P-4) regarding grant of ACP on completion of 4, 9 & 14 years of service in a cadre. Per-se there appears to be no logic behind not following the well known principle that an employee may exercise the option before the cut off date. It further appears that the principle dispute has not been determined by the competent authority, especially the petitioner's claim for ACP. The writ petition is accordingly disposed of at this stage with a direction to respondent Nos.2 & 3 to look into the afore-stated grievances of the petitioner as contained in his representations dated 20.12.2009 (Annexure P-3) and 19.1.2010 (Annexure P-5) and dispose of the same by passing a speaking order, preferably within a period of four months from the date of receiving a certified copy of this order. Disposed of. Dasti. 02-02-2010 (SURYA KANT) Mohinder JUDGE