CWP NO.6741 OF 2008 1 IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH CWP NO.6741 OF 2008 DATE OF DECISION: 25.04.2008 The Haryana State Cooperative Agriculture & Rural Development Bank Ltd. .....PETITIONER VERSUS Thamboo Singh and others .....RESPONDENTS CORAM:- HON'BLE MR.JUSTICE HEMANT GUPTA HON'BLE MR.JUSTICE MOHINDER PAL PRESENT: Mr.S.S.Dalal, Advocate for the petitioner. HEMANT GUPTA, J. The challenge in the present writ petition is to the order dated 19.12.2007 passed by the learned Financial Commissioner & Principal Secretary to Government of Harayan, Cooperation Department, Haryana (Annexure P4) whereby appeal filed by the respondent was accepted and the order of pay fixation dated 09.03.2006 was set aside being a non-speaking order. The respondent was granted two advance increments on account of higher qualification vide order dated 10.01.2002. However, a show cause notice was issued on 05.10.2005 for the reason that such advance increments are not admissible to the respondent. An order was CWP NO.6741 OF 2008 2 passed by the petitioner on 09.03.2006 withdrawing the benefits given to the said respondent. The respondent sought arbitration in terms of provisions of Sections 102 and 103 of Haryana Cooperative Societies Act, 1984, which was declined by the Registrar, Cooperative Societies, acting as an Arbitrator. It was held that the said respondent is not entitled to advance increments in terms of Rule 17.1 of the Staff Service Rules. However, the order passed by the learned Registrar, Cooperative Societies and order passed by the bank on 09.03.2006 have been set aside in appeal. Learned counsel for the petitioner has vehemently argued that the order dated 09.03.2006 (Annexure P2) passed by the petitioner has been merged with order Annexure P3 passed by the Registrar, Cooperative Societies wherein the detailed reasons have been given for upholding the withdrawal of the increments and, therefore, the finding recorded by the learned Financial Commissioner that the order is a non-speaking order is not tenable. Having heard the learned counsel for the petitioner, we do not find any merit in the said argument. Though the show cause notice was given by the petitioner to the respondent but the order Annexure P2 dated 09.03.2006 does not reflect any reason as to why advance increments are being withdrawn. There is no reference to reply, if any, filed by the respondents. There is no reason given in the order as to why advance increments granted earlier are being withdrawn. The dispute decided by the learned Registrar in respect of withdrawal of the increments cannot be treated as an order passed by the Competent Authority of withdrawal of the advance increments by a speaking order. The Authority, who has withdrawn CWP NO.6741 OF 2008 3 the advance increments was required to pass a speaking order by giving reason as to why advance increments are not admissible. Having not done so, the order passed by the Financial Commissioner cannot be said to be illegal on that ground. But we find that since the order has been found to be illegal on account of non-recording of reasons, liberty is required to be given to the petitioner to proceed afresh in accordance with law. In view of the above, the writ petition stands disposed of with liberty to the petitioner to pass an appropriate order as a consequence of show cause notice given in accordance with law. (HEMANT GUPTA) JUDGE ( MOHINDER PAL ) April 25, 2008 JUDGE jt