B.P.JEEVAN REDDY - (1.) LEAVE granted. Heard the counsel for the parties.
(2.) THIS appeal is directed against the judgment of the Punjab and Haryana High Court dismissing the writ petition filed by the appellant on the ground that it is premature. The High Court observed that inasmuch as the promotion of respondent No. 3, which was challenged in the writ petition, has been specifically made subject to the approval of the Haryana Public Service Commission and since the Commission has not yet finally decided the matter, the writ petition was premature. It is brought to our notice that since the filing of this Special Leave Petition, the Haryana Public Service Commission has approved the promotion of the third respondent. The main question arising in this appeal is whether the action of the Government of Haryana in treating the third respondent as senior to the appellant and promoting him to the higher post of Joint Director earlier than the appellant is valid and legal? The appellant was selected as a Class-I officer by direct recruitment on the recommendation of the Haryana Public Service Commission. He was appointed to Class-I post on 17/05/1978. On that date, the third respondent, Sri R. N. Sharma was already working as a Class-I officer but on ad hoc basis since 18/02/1977. In the year 1988, the Government of Haryana issued a final list of Haryana Administrative Service Class-I officers as it stood on 30/06/1988 wherein the appellant was shown at Serial No. 19. His date of appointment to Class-I was shown as 5/06/1978 and the method of appointment - direct recruitment. So far as the third respondent is concerned, he was shown under the heading "Officers who are working on ad hoc basis" at Serial No. 1. In the Column No. 6, his date of appointment to Class-I was shown at 25/02/1977 by promotion. In the last column relating to remarks, it was stated "date of regular promotion is to be decided", The appellant's grievance is that in spite of his being a senior in Class-I to respondent 3- who was indeed not even a regular member thereof - respondent 3 has been promoted as Joint Director ignoring the appellant's seniority and his claim for promotion. He says that certain orders were passed in favour of respondent No. 3 - and to the appellant's prejudice -regularising and giving retrospective effect to his promotion to Class-I - all of which are not only contrary to Rules but also violative of the principles of natural justice. The respondent's case is that the third respondent was promoted to Class-II post on 22/05/1968 on an ad hoc basis and had been making several representations to treat the said date of ad hoc promotion to Class-II as the date of his regular promotion thereto and on that basis regularise his promotion to Class-I. He had also approached the High Court of Punjab and Haryana more than once in that behalf. After several years of litigation and representations, the Government of Haryana acceded to his request and issued the order dated 13/08/1986 treating the date of ad hoc promotion of third respondent to Class-II as the date of his regular promotion and determining his seniority in Class-II on that basis. The order reads as follows: "HARYANA GOVERNMENT AGRICULTURE DEPARTMENT ORDER In continuation of Government order dated 3-1-1983 issued vide No. 12524-Agri.I (I)-82/62 dated 4-1-1983 the matter regarding fixation of seniority of direct appointees and promotees as Assistant Soil Conservation Officers in HAS-II has been reconsidered in accordance with provisions in the Punjab Agricultural Service (Class-II) Rules, 1947 and it has been decided that the tentative seniority of the following officers may be fixed as under:- JUDGEMENT_286_SUPP3_1994Html1.htm Therefore, the governor of Haryana is pleased to refix the tentative seniority of the above mentioned officers in HAS-II in the gradation list of HAS Class-11 offices as it stood on 6/80 as under: JUDGEMENT_286_SUPP3_1994Html2.htm The Government of Haryana issued an order promoting the third respondent to Class-I with effect from 6/07/1975, the date on which his junior, Sri Ram Nath Kumar, HAS-II was promoted, to HAS-I, subject to the approval of Haryana Public Service Commission. This order was stated to be consequential to the orders dated l3th/ 2/08/1986 promoting the third respondent to Class-II on a regular basis with effect from 22/05/1968. By yet another order made on 9/04/1991, the third respondent was promoted to the post of Joint Director with effect from 21/01/1981, the date on which his next junior, Sri Ram Pal Malik, HAS-I was promoted to the post of Joint Director. (This Ram Pal Malik is different from the appellant, Ram Pal Malik.)
(3.) . The appellant preferred a writ petition in the Punjab and Haryana High Court in March, 1991 questioning the validity and legality of the order dated 25/02/1991 aforesaid. The writ petition was dismissed observing that inasmuch as no order of appointment to the post of Joint Director has yet been made and since the matter was only at the stage of consideration of the third respondent for such promotion, there was no cause of action for filing the writ petition. The date of dismissal of the writ petition is 12/03/1991. After the order dated 19/04/1991 was passed, the appellant filed a fresh writ petition (C. W. P. No. 7052 of 1991) challenging the said order as well as the order dated 25/02/1991 in the Punjab and Haryana High Court. The appellant submitted that by virtue of order dated 25/02/1991 the third respondent has come to occupy Serial No. 9 in the seniority list of Class-I officers far above the appellant and that the said order, based as it is on the order dated 13/08/1986 which itself is illegal is equally illegal and void. The appellant submitted that the said order is affecting his seniority and since it has been passed without notice to him, it is bad for violation of principles of natural justice. This writ petition has been dismissed as premature, as stated at the inception of this judgment.;