IN THE PUNJAB AND HARYANA HIGH COURT AT CHANDIGARH CWP No.14225 of 2007 Date of decision: January , 2009 Raj Kishan ... Petitioner Versus State of Haryana & another ... Respondents CORAM : HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE AJAY TEWARI Present : Mr. J.S. Chahal, Advocate for the petitioner. Mr. Harish Rathee, Sr. DAG, Haryana. *** 1. Whether Reporters of Local Newspapers may be allowed to see the judgment? 2. To be referred to the Reporters or not? 3. Whether the judgment should be reported in the Digest? AJAY TEWARI, J. In this writ petition, the petitioner has challenged the impugned order dated 01.08.2007 (Annexure P-15) whereby a deduction of Rs.32,286/- from the Gratuity paid to the petitioner was upheld. The only reason given for justifying the said deduction was that the petitioner had started his service career as Clerk on 30.03.1964 and ultimately as per the policy decision of State of Haryana the services of the employees of Panchayat Samiti were provincialised and they were absorbed in Government service. Consequently, as per the respondents the prior regular service of the petitioner could not be counted for the grant of 8/18 years benefit. Learned counsel for respondents is not in a position to deny that the same question was decided by the Hon'ble CWP No.14225 of 2007 -2- Supreme Court in Civil Appeal Nos.4446, 4447 & 4448 of 2008 on 15.07.2008 which was subsequently followed by Division Bench of this Court in CWP No.15715 of 2008 decided on 27.11.2008. Thus, in my opinion, the services rendered by the petitioner could not be ignored and therefore it cannot be said that he was given any extra increment/s as claimed by the respondents. In these circumstances, this writ petition is allowed and impugned order Annexure P-15 upholding the recovery from the gratuity of the petitioner is set aside and respondents are directed to refund the recovery amount to the petitioner with interest @8% within a period of three months from the date of recovery to the date of repayment after receipt of certified copy of this order. Consequently, the writ petition is allowed. January , 2009 (AJAY TEWARI) sonia JUDGE