IN THE HIGH COURT OF HIMACHAL PRADESH, SHIMLA. C.W.P. No. 858 of 2010. Decided on : 1st December, 2011. _____________________________________________________ Sh. Dharmender, S/o Sh. Onkar Singh, Resident of Village Bankaddi, Post Office Lahrun, Tehsil Nurpur, Distt. Kangra, Himachal Pradesh. Presently working as Forest Range, Jawali, under Forest Division, Nurpur, District Kangra, Himachal Pradesh. ......Petitioner. -Versus- 1. State of H.P. through its Principal Secretary (Forests) to the Govt. of Himachal Pradesh, Shimla-171002. 2. The Divisional Forest Officer, Forest Division Nurpur, District Kangra, Himachal Pradesh. 3. The Forest Range Officer, Forest Range Jawali, District Kangra, Himachal Pradesh. …Respondents. Civil Writ Petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India. Coram: The Hon’ble Mr. Justice Kurian Joseph, Chief Justice. The Hon’ble Mr. Justice Rajiv Sharma, Judge. Whether approved for reporting?1 No. __________________________________________________________ For the petitioner : Mr. Onkar Jairath, Advocte. For the respondents : Mr. R.K. Bawa, A.G. with Mr. J.K. Verma, Dy. A.G. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Justice Rajiv Sharma, J.(Oral): Petitioner was engaged as a Beldar on daily wage basis in the month of February, 2000. He was retrenched by a verbal order on 08.08.2003. He assailed this decision before the learned erstwhile Himachal Pradesh Administrative Tribunal by 1 Whether the reporters of the local papers may be allowed to see the judgment?. No. - 2 - filing an Original Application bearing O.A. No. 2265 of 2003. The same was disposed of on 07.04.2004. It was ordered that the period of break on account of illegal termination in the year 2003-2004, i.e., between dis-engagement and re-engagement shall be counted towards seniority without back-wages. Thereafter, the seniority list was issued vide Annexure P-2. However, in this seniority list, the date of engagement of the petitioner has been shown w.e.f. 2001. 2. Mr. Onkar Jairath, learned counsel for the petitioner has vehemently argued that in fact his client has worked for more than 240 days in 2000. According to him, his client has worked for 31 days in October, 2000, 30 days in November, 2000 and 30 days in December, 2000. The respondent-department on the basis of seniority list Annexure P- 2 has initiated the process of regularization of those workers, who had completed 8 years of continuous service with 240 days in each calendar year. 3. In the reply, the respondents have admitted their mistake and have now revised the mandays as well as seniority. Petitioner has now been shown to be engaged w.e.f. 23rd February, 2000. He has, thus, completed more than 10 years of service as per the revised seniority list Annexure R-2. 4. Consequently, the writ petition is disposed of with a direction to the respondents to consider the case of petitioner for regularization on the basis of seniority list as it stood on 31.12.2009 as per Annexure R-2, within a period of ten weeks - 3 - from the date of production of a certified copy of this judgment by the petitioner. The pending application(s), if any, also stands disposed of. No costs. (Justice Kurian Joseph), Chief Justice. (Justice Rajiv Sharma), Judge. December 01, 2011. (bhupender) - 4 - `