IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH Civil Writ Petition No. 9058 of 2010 Date of decision : 23.08.2011 Sub Inspector Dharambir Singh No. 414 RR ...Petitioner Versus State of Haryana and others ...Respondents CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE RANJIT SINGH Present: Mr. S.N. Yadav, Advocate, for the petitioner. Mr. Harish Rathee, Sr. DAG, Haryana for the State. RANJIT SINGH J. The petitioner was enrolled as Constable on 31.01.1981. On the basis of achievement in the field of sports, he was promoted as Adhoc Head Constable on 18.07.1988. He was regularized as Head Constable in terms of Rule 13.8 (2) of the Punjab Police Rules on 31.12.1989. The petitioner passed intermediate school course on 28.03.2002. Thereafter, he was confirmed as ASI w.e.f. 31.08.2006 on 06.04.2007. The petitioner, accordingly, was promoted as Officiating Sub Inspector w.e.f. 06.05.2010, which was subject to the outcome of the CWP No. 5667 of 2010. Now respondent No. 4 had passed an order removing him from list 'E' and has reverted him to the post of ASI without assigning any reason. It is further alleged that no show cause notice was served to the petitioner. The petitioner has, accordingly, filed this writ petition primarily to impugn his Civil Writ Petition No. 9058 of 2010 -2- reversion on the ground that he has been put to prejudice without serving any notice, which would amount to violation of principle of natural justice. In the reply filed, the respondents have conceded that the petitioner joined the intermediate school course w.e.f. 01.10.2001 to 15.02.2002 instead of 2000-2001 on the basis of which he was promoted as ASI on 28.03.2002. As per the reply, the seniority of the petitioner was required to be fixed in terms of Punjab Police Rules, 13.4 and 13.13 amongst the ASIs of Rohtak Range, Rohtak. It was to be fixed on the basis of Lower School Course of ASI, Rohtak Range to avoid litigation. The petitioner was, accordingly, re-confirmed on 31.08.2008 instead of 2006 as was earlier ordered. It is further pointed out that the name of the petitioner has, thus, appeared at No. 226 of the seniority list of ASIs of Rohtak Range. The last candidate promoted was Pawan Kumar, whose name was at Sr. No. 154, who was approved for promotion to the post of Sub Inspector on 04.05.2010. The petitioner inadvertently was shown senior to 71 ASIs, whose names appear between Pawan Kumar and the petitioner. It is on this basis that the wrong had been corrected and the petitioner had now been assigned the correct seniority. Be that as it may, the petitioner has been reverted as consequence of this correction carried out in the seniority. The least what was expected from the respondents was to serve the show cause notice to the petitioner. The petitioner may show that there was no mistake and the petitioner was entitled to this promotion and has been wrongly reverted. Apparently, the impugned adverse order Civil Writ Petition No. 9058 of 2010 -3- has been passed without following the principle of natural justice. Adherence to the principle of natural justice is well-settled and will not accept any exception in such like cases. Accordingly, the impugned order cannot be sustained. The same is set aside. The petitioner may be served a show cause notice and thereafter an appropriate order passed in accordance with law. Till fresh decision is taken, the impugned order may operate. The writ petition is disposed of. August 23, 2011 (RANJIT SINGH) rts JUDGE