Civil Writ Petition No. 2858 of 1986 1 In the High Court of Punjab and Haryana, at Chandigarh. Civil Writ Petition No. 2858 of 1986 Date of Decision: 4.11.2008 Dr. Joginder Singh …Petitioner Versus The Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana and Another …Respondents CORAM: HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE KANWALJIT SINGH AHLUWALIA. Present: Mr. Vivek Sharma, Advocate for the petitioner. Mr. Deepak Agnihotri, Advocate for the respondents. Kanwaljit Singh Ahluwalia, J. (Oral) Petitioner Dr. Joginder Singh was working as Research Assistant in the Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana (hereinafter referred to as “the University”). He joined the services of the University as Research Assistant on 10.5.1969. It is stated that vide Annexure P1, petitioner was granted leave of kind due in order to enable him to join Ph.D. Programme in Chemistry at national Chemical Laboratories, Pune. He was granted earned leave with full pay from 3.2.1973 to 25.5.1973. He was further granted half pay leave from 26.5.1973 to 24.7.1973. The petitioner was granted extra ordinary leave (without pay) from 25.7.1973 to 2.2.1976. Vide Annexure P2. Petitioner was granted extra ordinary leave for another six months from 3.2.1976 to 2.8.1976. It is further stated that vide Annexure P3, petitioner was Civil Writ Petition No. 2858 of 1986 2 granted extra ordinary leave for another period of six months from 3.8.1976 to 2.2.1977 to complete his Ph.D. Programme at Malti Chem Research Center, Nandesari Baroda. This was to facilitate his Ph.D. Programme at Malti Chem Research Center, Nandesari Baroda. Case of the petitioner is that thereafter he proceeded for post doctoral studies and he was granted leave of kind due from 20.4.1979 to 19.4.1981. For doing post doctoral studies, petitioner proceeded to University of Exter. From Annexure P4/A, it is apparent that the petitioner had done his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry in the year 1977. According to petitioner, on 30.6.1983 he had completed 14 years, one month and 21 days service. The present writ petition has been filed seeking direction to the respondent-University to consider the petitioner eligible for promotion to the post of Bio-Chemist from July 1983. petitioner has relied upon Chapter IV-A and para 6(2)(i) of the University Calendar, which reads as under:- “6.2. Assistant Professor. (i) An Assistant Professor or equivalent shall be eligible for assessment for promotion as Associate Professor or equivalent, if he (a) fulfills the qualifications prescribed for the post of Associate Professor or equivalent; (b) has put in ten years of service as Assistant Professor or equivalent in this University; and (c) also fulfilled at the time of his original Civil Writ Petition No. 2858 of 1986 3 appointment to an Assistant Professor level post, the essential academic qualifications prescribed for the said post. Provided that where an Assistant Professor or equivalent was appointed in relaxation of the prescribed essential academic qualification like Ph.D. Etc., for computing ten years period, only 2/3rd weightage will be given to the service rendered by him as Assistant Professor or equivalent before attaining that essential qualification. Provided further that for computing this period of ten years, the period of study leave will also be excluded, except the period spent for obtaining Ph.D. Degree by an Assistant Professor or equivalent of the faculty of Agricultural Engineering. Provided further that for computing the period of ten years, the period spent by a teacher on training, fellowship, scholarship etc. aggregating upto a maximum of one year only, will be taken into consideration”. A perusal of the above will show that one has to put in ten years of service as Assistant Professor to claim promotion to the post of Associate Professor. The parties are in dispute that the post of Civil Writ Petition No. 2858 of 1986 4 Research Assistant was later re-designated as Assistant Professor. A proviso to para 6(2)(i) show that in case the petitioner has not attained essential academic qualification like Ph.D. for computing ten years period, only 2/3rd weightage will be given to the service rendered by him as Assistant Professor. Proviso further says that period of study leave is to be excluded, except the period spent for obtaining Ph.D. Degree by Assistant Professor or equivalent of the faculty of Agricultural Engineering. Case of the petitioner is that since he was granted study leave for doing his Ph.D, this period is not to be excluded. Notice of motion was issued. Respondent-University has filed reply. Perusal of reply show that Lecturers/Research Assistants are promoted as Assistant Professors and Assistant Professor are further promoted as Associate Professors. It will be apposite here to reproduce the portion of the written statement:- “...Whereas under sub-clause(i) above, the erstwhile Assistant Professor level teachers become eligible for assessment for promotion provided inter-alia they have put in 10 years of service, but according to sub-clause (iii) ibid, the erstwhile Lecturers/Research Assistants and equivalent who are now working as Assistant Professor and equivalent (to which category the petitioner belongs) become eligible for assessment for promotion provided inter-alia they have put in three years more Civil Writ Petition No. 2858 of 1986 5 service than that required to be rendered by an Assistant Professor and equivalent appointed through regular selection. Further, in both the cases, the period spent by a teacher on training, fellowship, scholarship etc. aggregating upto a maximum of one year only will be taken into account”. It is stated that those persons who were appointed as Research Assistants or Research Scholars, they are only to be given maximum benefit of one year for the entire period taken by them for completing Ph.D. The University has done the computation of the period which make the petitioner eligible for promotion in para 6(2) (i) and the same reads as under:- Years Months Days 1. Total service as on 30.6.83 14 1 21 (Research Assistant: 10.5.69 2.2.77 Asstt. Biochemist/ Asstt. Research Officer: 3.2.73 to 30.6.83) 2. Period of fellowship during 4 0 0 Ph.D. Studies from 3.2.73 to 2.2.77. 3. Period spent on fellowship/ 2 0 0 scholarship from 20.4.79 to 19.4.81 in England ____________________ 4. Total period of fellowship/ 6 0 0 scholarship ____________________ 5. Period in excess of one year 5 0 0 spent by him on fellowship/ post doctoral fellowship. ____________________ 6. Service to be taken into account 9 1 21 Civil Writ Petition No. 2858 of 1986 6 for determining his eligibility for promotion as on 30.6.83 _____________________ 7. Total qualifying service required for becoming eligible in case of 13 0 0 erstwhile Lecturers/Research Asstts. And equivalent who are now working as Assistant Professor & equivalent”. Mr. Sharma appearing for petitioner is unable to assail that Research Assistants being equivalent to Lecturers/Assistant Professors, were to be treated differently and computation made above by the University was not correct. Mr. Deepak Agnihotri, Advocate, appearing for the University, stated that proviso 2 to Clause 6(i) is not applicable in case of the petitioner as he had not availed study leave during Ph.D. Even otherwise, petitioner was to be considered for the promotion in the year 1983. Now in the year 2008, after 25 years the consideration cannot be granted to the petitioner retrospectively. Therefore, there is no merit in the present writ petition and the same is dismissed. (Kanwaljit Singh Ahluwalia) Judge November 4, 2008 “DK”