IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH Civil Writ Petition No. 1220 of 1988 Date of decision: 2nd December, 2008 J.S. Bajaj and others … Petitioners Versus State of Punjab and others … Respondents CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE KANWALJIT SINGH AHLUWALIA Present: None for the petitioners. Mr. Satish Bhanot, Senior DAG Punjab for the State. KANWALJIT SINGH AHLUWALIA, J. (ORAL) Present writ petition has been filed by six lecturers of Arya College, Ludhiana. They claim that their past service in various affiliated colleges be counted towards determining seniority and releasing selection grade. Petitioner No.1, J.S. Bajaj states that before being employed in Arya College, Ludhiana, he had served in Khalsa College, Gurusar Sudhar from 3rd August, 1961 to 21st August, 1972. Similarly, petitioner No.2, M.G. Khurana states that before joining Arya College, he served as lecturer from 24th August, 1964 to 30th June, 1965 in M.R. College, Fazilka and thereafter, from 1st July, 1965 to 15th July, 1971 in N.M. College, Mansa. Petitioner No.3, S.P. Sabharwal was employed as lecturer from 24th August, 1964 to 25th March, 1965 in Ramgarhia College, Phagwara; from 1st July, 1965 to 31st July, 1970 in N.M. College, Mansa and from 1st August, 1970 to 19th July, 1971 in R.S.D. College, Ferozepur before joining Arya College, Ludhiana. There is no need to mention regarding other Civil Writ Petition No. 1220 of 1988 lecturers, as they had also worked in other colleges before joining Arya College, Ludhiana. Mr. Satish Bhanot appearing for the State has stated that the petitioners may have attained the age of superannuation and may have retired, therefore, their claim regarding seniority has been rendered infructuous. So far as the prayer of grant of selection grade is concerned, it is submitted that the Government had already issued Annexure P-5 and as per that, selection grade is available only on completion of 15 years of service in the cadre, subject to work and conduct of the officer being satisfactory and the grant of selection grade is to be based upon inter-se seniority of the lecturers, maintained by the College. It was further submitted that selection grade was to be granted only to 20 percent of the lecturers. The Government has defined procedure in Annexure P-5 and also circulated a formula, illustration of which has been given as Annexure with the written statement and the same reads as under: “The Government of Punjab is pleased to substitute clause (XI) of para 2 of the Punjab Government Memo No. 4 Spl/ dated the 2nd February, 1968 as under:- (xi) The entitlement to the revised scale of Rs.400- 800 will be on the basis of seniority as determined by the length of service of a person in the college he was working on 1st November, 1966. However, exception may be made in the cases of persons recruited from outside who have joined on a salary higher than minimum in which case total service as a college lecturer will be taken into account. ILLUSTRATION ‘A’ has been working in college ‘Z’ as a lecturer for six years. His total service as a lecturer is 9 years. ‘B’ has joined the college from outside on a salary higher than the minimum and on 1.11.66 he is getting more pay than ‘A’ with 8 years 2 Civil Writ Petition No. 1220 of 1988 service in college ‘Z’. If his total service as a lecturer is 10 years he will be eligible for 400-800 grade in preference to ‘A’. If his total service as a college lecturer is 8 years (i.e. less than the total service of ‘A’, i.e. 9 years) he will not be entitled to 400-800 in preference to ‘A’ though he may be getting more salary.” In view of the illustration given, College authorities are bound to determine selection grade in consonance with the same. Therefore, present writ petition is disposed off with a direction to the respondents to determine the selection grade in accordance with the letter dated 20th June, 1968, issued by the Government, contents of which have been reproduced above. [KANWALJIT SINGH AHLUWALIA] JUDGE December 2, 2008 rps 3