CWP No.9893 of 1990 1 IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB & HARYANA, CHANDIGARH CWP No.9893 of 1990 Date of decision May 11, 2011 Chet Ram and others ....... Petitioners Versus The Engineer-in-Chief, Irrigation Department, Haryana, 30 Bays Building, Sector 17, Chandgiarh and others ........Respondents CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE K. KANNAN Present:- Mr. Ranjit Singh Saini, Advocate for the petitioners. Mr. Satbir Singh Goripuria, DAG., Haryana. **** 1. Whether reporters of local papers may be allowed to see the judgment ? No 2. To be referred to the reporters or not? No 3. Whether the judgment should be reported in the digest?No K. Kannan, J (oral). 1. The petitioners challenge the decisions passed by the Financial Commissioner to the Engineer-in-Chief, Irrigation Department, where it was stated that vacancies arising due to employment of Haryana Government quota of employees in BBMB, BSNL etc., in the share of posts should not be governed by provisions of reservation. This was purported to be on the basis that vacancies are essentially short term and the promotion should also be short term. 2. The petitioners are persons who have continued in the Irrigation Department and who have requested that the rule of reservation shall apply to all employees including the employee who were CWP No.9893 of 1990 2 transferred to BBMB, BSL etc. The request was that roster of reservation has to be prepared by taking all the persons including the persons who are transferred to BBMB, etc., as cadre posts retained in Irrigation Department. It is the grievance of the petitioners that while the Punjab Government has adopted the rule of reservation for persons who are transferred from the Irrigation Department to BBMB, while the Haryana Government alone is adopting the different policy. 3. It is the contention of the petitioners that persons who are transferred to BBMB etc., are not persons who are sent on deputation but they are retained in the cadre of the Government. It is in pursuance to an agreement under the BBMB Act whereby the distribution of responsibility in the project in BBMB was to be shared between the Government of Punjab and the Government of Haryana in the ratio of 60:40 and all the persons that are transferred to BBMB, etc., in pursuance to the accepted policy must be taken as retained in the parent cadre and the rules of reservation shall also apply to all persons including the persons who are transferred. This issue has been originally brought through several communications from the Engineer-in-Chief, Irrigation Department to the Commissioner and Secretary to Government. The Registrar writing on behalf of the Engineer-in-Chief has stated in the communication to the Commissioner that the permanent posts are counted only keeping in view the posts of Irrigation Department and transferred employees of BBMB all the posts are therefore included in the roster for reservation at present. In my view, there was no reason to deviate from this stated position and the reading of the government instructions to mean that the vacancies caused by transfers of employees of BBMB etc., would not be covered by provisions of reservation was clearly erroneous. The same direction is quashed. Consequently the petitioners are entitled to consideration for being assigned to the roster points by including the persons transferred to CWP No.9893 of 1990 3 BBMB, BSL etc., in the cadre of employees of the Irrigation Department. The entire exercise shall be undertaken by the State and be completed within a period of 12 weeks from the date of receipt of copy of the order with consequent benefits. The writ petition is allowed on the above terms. (K. KANNAN) JUDGE May 11, 2011 archana