LPA No. 1343 of 2009 (O&M) -1- IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH LPA No. 1343 of 2009 (O&M) Date of Decision 04.01.2011 Ajaib Singh and others -----Appellants Versus State of Punjab and others ---Respondents CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE M.M. KUMAR HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE T.P.S. MANN Present: Mr. Preet Pal Singh, Advocate for the appellants. Mr. R.K. Arora, Advocate for the respondents 1. To be referred to the Reporters or not? 2. Whether the judgment should be reported in the Digest? M.M. KUMAR, J. 1. This order shall dispose of a bunch of five Letters Patent Appeals as the common questions of law and facts have been raised in these appeals. 2. The short issue raised is whether ad hoc service rendered by an employee would count for seniority and consequential benefit of Career Assured Scheme in terms of Rule 8 of the Punjab Civil Services (General Common Conditions) Rules, 1994 (for brevity 'the Rules'). The aforesaid Rules came up for consideration of Hon'ble the Supreme Court in the case of State of Punjab v. Ashwani Kumar AIR 2009 SC 186. It has been categorically held that the period of ad hoc service rendered by the employees cannot be LPA No. 1343 of 2009 (O&M) -2- included for the purposes of seniority and it is only regular service which would count for seniority. A similar view has been taken by a Constitutional Bench of Hon'ble the Supreme Court in the case of Direct Recruit Class II Engineering Officers Association v. State of Maharashtra and others, (1990) 2 SCC 715. There is, thus, no merit in these appeals. It is also clear that only that service would qualify for Career Assured Scheme which would be countable for seniority. Therefore, there is no merit in these appeals. 3. Accordingly, the appeals fail and the same are dismissed. 4. A photocopy of this order be placed on the files of connected cases. (M.M. KUMAR) JUDGE (T.P.S. MANN) JUDGE January 4, 2011 Atul 1. LPA No. 1343 of 2009 (O&M) Ajaib Singh and others v. State of Punjab and others 2. LPA No. 1344 of 2009 (O&M) Ajaib Singh and others v. State of Punjab and others. 3. LPA No. 1345 of 2009 (O&M) Ajaib Singh and others v. State of Punjab and others. 4. LPA No. 1240 of 2009 (O&M) Rattan Singh and others v. State of Punjab and others. 5. LPA No. 1236 of 2009 (O&M) Rattan Singh and others v. State of Punjab and others