IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB & HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH CWP No. 12518 of 2010 (O&M) Date of Decision: 22.09.2011 Karam Singh ...Petitioner Versus State of Punjab and others ..Respondents. CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE SURYA KANT Present : Mr. Hariom Attri, Advocate, for the petitioner. Mr. B.S.Chahal, Deputy Advocate General, Punjab. **** SURYA KANT, J.(Oral) The petitioner joined the Irrigation Department as Work Charge Beldar (Class-IV) on 14.12.1984 and was thereafter promoted as Gauge Reader on regular basis on 08.11.1989. The petitioner had been satisfactorily performing his duties on the said promotional post till the impugned order dated 02.07.2010 (Annexure P-1) was passed suddenly after more than 20 years reverting him to the post of Beldar on the plea that 'he has not qualified matriculation and was wrongly promoted'. Respondents have filed their reply/affidavit maintaining that the petitioner was promoted inadvertently as for appointment to the post of Gauge Reader, a Beldar was required to possess the qualification of matriculation. The petitioner has, however, controverted the aforesaid plea by securing information under the Right to Information Act which he has placed on record to prove that not one but several persons like Sukhdev Singh, Baldev Singh, Bachan Singh and CWP No. 12518 of 2010 (O&M) [2] Gurmeet Singh have been promoted as Gauge Readers and all of them are/were under matriculation. None of them have been reverted so far. It would thus be seen that not only the impugned order exhibits hostile discrimination qua the petitioner it has been passed without any application of mind also. It is quite unfortunate that the authorities have not even observed the principles of natural justice while reverting the petitioner after such a long period without issuing any show cause notice. For the reasons aforestated, the writ petition is allowed. The impugned order is hereby quashed. The petitioner shall continue to hold the post of Gauge Reader. Since the impugned order was stayed by this Court as an interim measure, no consequential benefits are required to be granted to the petitioner. He is, however, held entitled to the costs of ` 5000/- which shall be recovered personally from the Executive Engineer, Lehal Division, Irrigation Branch, Lehal, Patiala who is responsible for passing the impugned order. Dasti. 22.09.2011 (SURYA KANT) 'ravinder' JUDGE