Civil Writ Petition No. 6593 of 2005 1 In the High Court of Punjab and Haryana, Chandigarh. Civil Writ Petition No. 6593 of 2005 Date of Decision: 10.4.2008 Satpal and Others …Petitioners Versus State of Punjab and Others …Respondents CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE ASHUTOSH MOHUNTA HON’BLE MR.JUSTICE KANWALJIT SINGH AHLUWALIA Present: Mr. Vishal Sharma, Advocate for Mr. B.B.S.Teji, Advocate for the petitioner. Mr. Yatinder Sharma, Deputy Advocate General, Punjab, for respondents No.1 and 2. Mr. J.S.Jaidka, Advocate for respondent No.3. Ms. Anju Rathore, Advocate for respondent No.4. Mr. Jatinder Kumar, Advocate for Mr. Pradip Bhandari, Advocate for respondent No.5. Kanwaljit Singh Ahluwalia, J. Petitioners are Class-IV employees, working in various Municipal Corporations in the State of Punjab i.e. Amritsar, Ludhiana and Bathinda. They have prayed for quashing the notification dated 11.4.2005 (Annexure P1) whereby promotion to the post of Sanitary Civil Writ Petition No. 6593 of 2005 2 Inspectors in the Punjab Municipal Corporation Services has been restricted to Class-III cadre employees (i.e. Clerks, Health Workers etc.) who possess Sanitary Inspector Certificate from recognized Institution with five years experience of working on any Class-III post of Municipal Corporation. Grievance of the petitioners is twofold. Firstly, they say that the notification which debarred the employees of Class-IV cadre for promotion to the post of Sanitary Inspector is bad and restricting the promotion to Class-III cadre employees is unreasonable classification. Second grievance made is that before the notification, 30 posts have arisen prior to the amendment of the rules and, therefore, they are to be filled up under the rules prevailing before the amendment. It is stated that before the amendment of rules even Class- IV employees were also eligible. In the reply, it has been stated by the State, that State is well within its rights to prescribe qualification for promotion and prescribing the feeder cadre to the promotion only from Class-III employees cannot held to be arbitrary. On 24.4.2007, Dipinder Singh, Additional Secretary to Government of Punjab, Department of Local Government, filed an additional affidavit that before notification dated 11.4.2005 (Annexure P1) only six posts of Corporation Sanitary Inspectors were lying vacant and it has been specifically denied that 30 posts were lying vacant. We have heard learned counsel for the parties and perused the record. We are unable to agree with learned counsel for the petitioners that the amendment carried out vide notification (Annexure Civil Writ Petition No. 6593 of 2005 3 P1) where promotion was restricted to Class-III employees should be quashed. The Government has powers to make rules regulating the recruitment and conditions of service of members of Corporation. They can also prescribe classification of such service and duties and functions of the members of such service. The criteria adopted by the State to restrict promotions to Class-III employees to the post of Sanitary Inspector cannot be held to be bad simply because no avenue for promotion has been carved for Class-IV employees. It has been submitted by learned State counsel that Class-IV employees after their promotion to Class-III will be eligible for their appointment in the cadre of Sanitary Inspector. This classification made by the State cannot be held to be unreasonable. It has been stated that all the petitioners had obtained the Sanitary Inspectors Diploma of one year after attending regular classes at Jaipur. It has been further stated that petitioner No.7 namely Sanjeev Kumar was granted permission vide order 21.5.2002 (Annexure P2) to undergo Diploma of Sanitary Inspector. It has been stated that prior to the amendment of rules, posts of Sanitary Inspector were used to be filled up on the basis of guide-lines issued to the department and all categories including Class-IV employees were eligible for promotion. As discussed above, we find no justification to quash notification dated 11.4.2005 (Annexure P1). After hearing learned counsel for the parties, we are of the considered view that those Class-IV employees who had acquired Diploma of Sanitary Inspector after taking permission from the Authorities can be considered for posts of Sanitary Inspector which were available before the amendment of the rules. In Y.V.Rangajah and Civil Writ Petition No. 6593 of 2005 4 Others v. J. Sreenivasa Rao and Others” AIR 1983 Supreme Court 852, it was held that “the vacancies which occurred prior to the amended rules would be governed by the old rules and not by the amended rules”. In view of this, we partly accept this writ petition and hold that the posts of Sanitary Inspector, which had occurred prior to the amended rules, will be available for consideration to the Class-IV employees, who had obtained Diploma of Sanitary Inspector. However, we dismiss the writ petition so far it challenges validity of impugned notification dated 11.4.2005 (Annexure P5). Hence, the present writ petition is disposed off. (Kanwaljit Singh Ahluwalia) Judge (Ashutosh Mohunta) Judge April 10, 2008 “DK”