L.P.A. No.1882 of 2010 (O&M) -1- IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH L.P.A. No.1882 of 2010 (O&M) DATE OF DECISION: MARCH 18, 2011 Rajbir Singh .....APPELLANT Versus State of Haryana and others ....RESPONDENTS CORAM: HON'BLE MR.JUSTICE SATISH KUMAR MITTAL HON'BLE MR.JUSTICE M. JEYAPAUL --- Present: Mr. Rajinder Goyal, Advocate, for the appellant. .. SATISH KUMAR MITTAL, J. This Letters Patent Appeal has been directed against the order dated 1.4.2010 passed by the learned Single Judge, whereby the writ petition (CWP No.5937of 2010) filed by appellant challenging the order dated 16.3.2010 passed by the Financial Commissioner, has been dismissed. Though this appeal is barred by limitation as along with the appeal the appellants have filed an application (CM No.5626 of 2009) for condonation of 74 days of delay in filing the appeal, however, without taking the said delay into consideration, we have heard the learned counsel for the appellant on merits and gone through the impugned order passed by the learned Single Judge. In this appeal, the dispute is about the appointment on the post of Lambardar of village Bapda. The Collector, who is the appointing L.P.A. No.1882 of 2010 (O&M) -2- authority, had appointed respondent-Jagir Singh as Lambardar of the village, who was found to be more meritorious than the appellant on many counts, i.e. the respondent is the son of deceased Lambardar; he is more educated, younger in age, he has lands much more than other candidates and has the support of larger number of persons of the village. On appeal filed by the appellant, the Commissioner vide his order dated 15.10.2008 set aside the order of the Collector. The respondent challenged the said order before the Financial Commissioner, who, after considering the legal and factual position, had set aside the order of the Commissioner and restored the order of the Collector, while coming to the conclusion that the Commissioner's order setting aside the order of the Collector was perverse and unjustified interference in the choice of the Collector. The learned Single Judge has dismissed the writ petition filed by the appellant and affirmed the order of the Financial Commissioner while coming to the conclusion that the Commissioner had acted illegally while setting aside the order of the Collector, without recording any finding that the said order was arbitrary, perverse or preposterous. After hearing the learned counsel for the appellant and going through the orders passed by the learned Single Judge and the Financial Commissioner, we do not find any illegality in the same. It is well settled that normally the choice of the Collector, who is the appointing authority in the matter of appointment of Lambardar in the village, should not be interfered with by the Commissioner or Financial Commissioner, but in case where the order of the Collector is illegal or perverse and the Collector has arbitrarily appointed a person as Lambardar of the village after ignoring a L.P.A. No.1882 of 2010 (O&M) -3- meritorious person, then the Financial Commissioner, being the highest revenue authority, can upset the said order. In the present case also, the Collector, while considering the comparative merits of both the candidates, has come to the conclusion that the respondent was more meritorious than the appellant for the post of Lambardar. This fact has not been disputed. Therefore, the Commissioner, in our view, was not justified to upset the choice of the Collector. It is not the case of the appellant that the respondent was ineligible or disqualified to be appointed on the post of Lambardar. Therefore, once the Collector, after considering the comparative merits of the candidates, appointed the respondent as Lambardar of the village, his choice should not be interfered with by the Commissioner. Thus, the learned Single Judge has rightly affirmed the order of the Financial Commissioner. In view of the above, we do not find any illegality in the impugned order. Hence, the appeal is dismissed. (SATISH KUMAR MITTAL) JUDGE March 18, 2011 ( M. JEYAPAUL ) vkg JUDGE