IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB & HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH Civil Writ Petition No.3469 of 2005 (O&M) Date of Decision : 20.01.2010 Balwinderjeet Kaur .....Petitioner versus State of Punjab and others .....Respondents CORAM : HON'BLE MR.JUSTICE SURYA KANT. Present : Mr.R.C.Chatrath, Advocate, for the petitioner. Mr.B.S.Chahal, DAG, Punjab. -.- 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? --- ORDER Surya Kant, J. (Oral) On the joint request of counsel for the parties, the main writ petition is taken up on board for final disposal. The petitioner is a widow of late Amarjit Singh who was employed as P.R.Chowkidar in the office of the District Food and Supply Officer, Patiala. The deceased-Amarjit Singh was employed as such through Employment Exchange on 19.7.1983 in the pre-revised pay scale of Rs.300-430 as was admissible to Class-IV employees in the State of Punjab. This pay scale was further revised to Rs.750-1350 w.e.f. 1.1.1986 C.W.P.No .3469 of 2005 (O&M) 2 with an initial pay of Rs.770/- and further to Rs.2520-4140 w.e.f. 1.1.1996 with an initial pay of Rs.2620/-. The husband of the petitioner unfortunately died in harness on 30.5.2002. The petitioner now seeks a mandamus to direct the respondents to grant her family pension after regularizing the services of her deceased-husband in terms of the Government Instructions (Annexures P-7 to P-9) and she also relied upon a decision of this Court rendered in CWP No.16786 of 2001 (Baldev Singh versus State of Punjab and others), decided on 5.12.2002 (Annexure P-5) against which the LPA and SLP both have been dismissed. The petitioner has also placed reliance on a Division Bench judgment of this Court dated 27.1.2005 (Annexure P-12) rendered in CWP No.7780 of 2004 (Rakha Singh versus State of Punjab and others) whereby the PR Chowkidars, like her deceased-husband, were directed to be treated as regular employees and a further direction to grant them pension and other retiral benefits was issued. During the course of hearing, the learned Deputy Advocate General Punjab, states that in the light of the above referred decisions, the State Government has issued a policy dated 17.4.2009 in terms whereof the PR Chowkidars, subject to their fulfillment of the eligibility conditions prescribed in the policy, are entitled to be treated as regular employees and they have been granted all the retiral benefits. The petitioner's case, thus, would be squarely covered by the afore-stated Government Policy as well. For the reasons afore-stated, this writ petition is allowed and C.W.P.No .3469 of 2005 (O&M) 3 the respondents are directed to treat the deceased-husband of the petitioner as a regular PR Chowkidar for all intents and purposes and grant her all the retiral and consequential benefits including ex-gratia, gratuity, family pension etc. according to the Rules/Government Instructions, within a period of three months from the date of receiving a certified copy of this order. Dasti. 20-01-2010 (SURYA KANT) Mohinder JUDGE