CWP No.17270 of 2007 -1- IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH CWP No.17270 of 2007 Date of decision : 10-3-2009 Jasbir Singh ....Petitioner VERSUS The Punjab State Electricity Board and Others ....Respondents CORAM:- HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE PERMOD KOHLI Present: Mr. Virinder Kumar Shukla, Advocate, for the petitioner. Mr. Jagtar Singh, Advocate, for the respondents. PERMOD KOHLI, J. (Oral) Petitioner joined the service in the Punjab State Electricity Board 19-3-1970 on temporary basis and regularised on 13-7-1971. He was promoted as Upper Division Clerk on 18-04-2002 and retired on 28-02-2007 on attaining the age of superannuation. Under the policy dated 28-7-2000 as notified, the employees on completion of 16 and 23 years of service are entitled to be placed in the next higher scale. It is not in dispute that the petitioner served for a period of more than 23 years in the service of the Board. The grievance of the petitioner is that he has not been paid the proficiency step on completion of 23 years of regular service. The claim of the petitioner is rejected by the respondents on CWP No.17270 of 2007 -2- the ground that the petitioner failed to qualify the Departmental Examination and thus he is not entitled to seek the benefit of policy on completion of 23 years of service. The petitioner has placed on record copy of office order dated 28-04-1998 (Annexure P-4) issued by the respondent-Board which inter alia provide the exemption from passing the Departmental Accounts Examination for promotion JE-II to JE-I and LDC to UDC for official of the Board who has completed 50 years of age irrespective of the fact that he has availed six attempts to clear the Departmental Accounts Examination. It is also admitted position that the petitioner completed more than 23 years of service and thus was exempted from qualifying the Departmental Examination envisaged under the Service Rules of the respondent-Board. Learned counsel appearing for the respondents has argued that the petition is belated one. I am unable to accept this contention. The claim of the petitioner during service cannot be denied on these flimsy grounds. Otherwise also the petitioner retired on service from 28-02-2007 and the present petition has been filed in this Court on 12-11-2007. There is no delay in filing the petition. In view of the clear policy decision of the respondent – State to exempt the incumbent who has completed 50 years of age from passing the Departmental Examination for seeking promotion/time bound benefit, the claim of the petitioner cannot be denied. Thus petition is accordingly allowed. Respondents are directed to release all monetary and financial benefits to the CWP No.17270 of 2007 -3- petitioner and place the petitioner on next higher scale on completion of 23 years of service i.e. UDC scale and release all monetary/financial benefits within a period of three months from the date of receipt of certified copy of this order. The retiral benefits shall also be consequently revised and paid to the petitioner. (PERMOD KOHLI) 10-3-2009 JUDGE manju