C.W.P. No.1840 of 2009 -1- IN THE HIGH COURT FOR THE STATES OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH C.W.P. No.1840 of 2009 Date of Decision.22.03.2010 Balbir Singh ........Petitioner Versus The State of Punjab through its Secretary, Department of Local Self Government, Punjab, Chandigarh and others ....Respondents Present: Mr. A.P. Bhandari, Advocate for the petitioner. Mr. Anil Kumar Sharma, Addl. A.G., Punjab for respondent Nos.1 and 2. Mr. Rajdeep Singh Cheema, Advocate for respondent No.3. None for respondent Nos.4 and 5. Mr. G.S. Sidhu, Advocate for respondent No.6. CORAM:HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE K. KANNAN 1. Whether Reporters of local papers 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? -.- K. KANNAN J.(ORAL) 1. The petitioner's claim through the writ petition is that he is entitled to consideration for promotion to the higher post on the day when his juniors namely respondent Nos.4 to 7 had been promoted. It is not now in dispute that respondent Nos.4 to 7 were in fact juniors to the petitioner and there were no adverse entries against the petitioners for being denied the promotion. The defence by the State, however, has been that the petitioner had C.W.P. No.1840 of 2009 -2- been on long leave of six months and therefore, he could not be considered. The reply itself states that other than the fact that the petitioner was on leave, there was no ground to ignore the petitioner from consideration for promotion. Admittedly, the promotions were to be on the basis of seniority-cum-merit, where seniority assumes primacy. So long as the petitioner has fulfilled the necessary benchmark, the promotion to next higher post cannot be denied, when the juniors had been promoted. 2. The petitioner is entitled to the relief, which he has sought for and the petitioner shall be promoted to the next higher post from the date when his juniors were promoted to the post of Superintendent. If for any reason, there is no adequate vacant posts, the junior-most amongst the respondents shall be reverted to a lower post. This is just to address the concern of the learned Government Counsel that there should be adequate number of vacant posts and all the respondents cannot claim retention of their posts if the petitioner's case were to merit consideration for promotion. 3. The petitioner shall be entitled to all the monetary benefits, seniority etc. The order shall be given effect within a period of eight weeks from the date of passing of the order. 4. The writ petition is allowed on the above terms. There shall be, however, no direction as to costs. (K. KANNAN) JUDGE March 22, 2010 Pankaj*