IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH Civil Writ Petition No.416 of 2006 Date of decision: 26th October, 2010 Surender Kumar … Petitioner Versus State of Haryana and others … Respondents CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE KANWALJIT SINGH AHLUWALIA Present: Mr. Kulbhushan Sharma, Advocate for the petitioner. Mr. Sukhvinder Singh Nara, Sr. DAG Haryana for the State. KANWALJIT SINGH AHLUWALIA, J. (ORAL) In the present writ petition, a prayer has been made that the impugned order (Annexure P-8) dated 20th July, 2005, whereby appointment letter issued to the petitioner was withdrawn, be quashed. Briefly stated, the petitioner, in pursuance of an advertisement issued by the respondents, applied for recruitment to the post of Constable. Case of the petitioner is that he was duly selected and an appointment letter (Annexure P-5) was issued in his favour, the relevant portion whereof reads as under: “He is hereby appointed as temporary constable in India Reserve Battalion with effect from 06.03.05 FN in the pay scale of Rs.3050-85-4325 EB-100-5325. He is allotted India Reserve Battalion Constabulary No.21604 IRB and declared as a member of force under Act of 1861. He is vested with the powers, functions and privileges of police officers. He has been enlisted on the PPR and other rules/instructions issued by the Govt. from time to time.” Civil Writ Petition No.416 of 2006 It is further submitted that in pursuance of the appointment letter, petitioner joined his services and discharged duties for a period of four months when the impugned order (Annexure P-8) was passed. In the impugned order (Annexure P-8), it has been stated that no appointment had been given to any candidate in the waiting list maintained by the Selection Board, Gurgaon, therefore, due to inadvertence the appointment letter was issued to the petitioner and the same was to be withdrawn. Counsel for the State has specifically stated that name of the petitioner figured in the waiting list and it is due to oversight that the appointment letter was issued to the petitioner. Counsel for the State has further relied upon various writ petitions, in which a Division Bench of this Court has held that a candidate in the waiting list has no vested right to seek appointment. Counsel for the petitioner has controverted this argument and has stated that no candidate in the writ petitions, decided by the Division Bench of this Court, was given appointment letter and had joined the services. Counsel for the petitioner has stated that since the petitioner, in pursuance of the appointment letter (Annexure P-5), has performed duties continuously for a period of four months, it was incumbent upon the authorities to afford an opportunity of hearing to the petitioner before passing the impugned order (Annexure P-8). Learned counsel has further stated that had this exercise been undertaken, he would have demonstrated to the authorities that he was not in the waiting list but was given appointment letter on the basis of merit. After hearing counsel for the parties, the impugned order (Annexure P-8) is set aside and the authorities are hereby directed to afford an opportunity of hearing to the petitioner to represent that he was within the merit list and was not in the waiting list. After hearing the 2 Civil Writ Petition No.416 of 2006 petitioner, a fresh order shall be passed within a period of two months from the date of receipt of a certified copy of this order. Since, it is in dispute as to whether the petitioner was selected or was in the waiting list, no consequential benefit shall accrue to the petitioner by setting aside the impugned order (Annexure P-8). Furthermore, the maxim of ‘no work no pay’ has to apply. Counsel for the petitioner has further stated that since those, who were higher in the merit, have not joined, even if the petitioner was in the waiting list, the right of appointment has accrued to him. This argument may also be examined by the authorities. With the observations made above, present petition is disposed of. [KANWALJIT SINGH AHLUWALIA] JUDGE October 26, 2010 rps 3