IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB & HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH Civil Writ Petition No. 1881 of 1991 Date of decision: April 25, 2011 Avtar Singh and another .. Petitioners Vs. Punjab School Education Board, SAS Nagar, Mohali and others .. Respondents Coram: Hon'ble Mr. Justice A.N. Jindal Present: Mr. Arjun Partap Atma Ram, Advocate for the petitioners. None for the respondents. A.N. Jindal, J It has been brought to my notice that similar issue had arisen in L.P.A. No.306 of 1997, titled as State of Punjab and others vs. Malkiat Singh, decided by this Court on 27.8.2010, wherein, the following observations were made :- “It is pertinent to mention here that the decisions of Dhan Singh's case (supra) and K.C. Arora's case (supra) have been followed by the Supreme Court in Hav. Bharat Singh etc., v. State of Haryana and another, AIR 1996 S.C. 1705, wherein it was held that the Rules of 1965, as amended by State of Haryana on 4.8.1976, confer benefits to those who joined the State Government after having been in military service during the Emergency. It was open to the State to withdraw the offer, but not qua those who had already accepted the offer and joined the State Government service. By introducing amendment in the year 1976, the State Government did not withdraw the offer wholly but restricted it to those who had enrolled or were commissioned in the armed forces during the Emergency. The State Government was entitled to do so. But the grant of benefit of military service to those who had joined the State Government service while unamended rules operated Civil Writ Petition No. 1881 of 1991 -2- *** acquired a vested right, by reason of their having accepted the offer made thereby, which could not have been defeated by the amendment. It is admitted position that the Rules of 1965 were not amended by the Punjab Government, as amended by the Haryana Government. Therefore, in our view, the learned Single Judge has rightly come to the aforesaid conclusion that the benefit of military service during the Emergency period has to be granted even to those persons, who had joined the armed forces even prior to the declaration of Emergency” Learned counsel for the petitioners has submitted that their case is covered by the said judgment. He has also placed reliance on the judgment delivered by this Court in case Piara Singh Bains vs. Punjab State Electricity Board, Patiala, 1994 (1) S.C.T. 376. In any case, without commenting further this writ petition is disposed of with the direction to the respondents to consider the case of the petitioners in the light of the judgment delivered in Malkiat Singh's case (supra), within three months from today, April 25, 2011 (A.N. Jindal) deepak Judge