- (1.) The petitioner, who is employed as Employment Officer with the State of Punjab has filed the present writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India seeking re-allocation to the post of Food & Supplies Officer in terms of the rank of the petitioner in the merit list in the light of the preference that the petitioner had submitted at the time of filling of the application form for the Punjab Civil Services (Executive Branch) & Allied Services Main Examination, 1998 (Re-conducted 2003).
(2.) The petitioner belongs to the category of ex-service man. He had appeared in the Punjab Civil Services (Executive Branch) & Allied Services Examination, 1998. Such selection process pertaining to the year 1998 was crapped and fresh examination were conducted in the year 2003. 92 vacancies in relation to Punjab Civil Services (Executive Branch) & Allied Services had been advertised out of which six were reserved for the category of E.S.M. (D.E.S.M), Punjab. At the time of the petitioner filling the application form an order of preference of service was required to be filled up. The petitioner had listed his preference in the order mentioned as under:- Sr. No. Post Preference 1 PCS (EB) 1 st 2 ETO 2 nd 3 Tehsildar 3 rd 4 Food & Supply Officer 4 th 5 Assistant Registrar Cooperative Societies 5 th 6 Employment Officer (General) 6 th
(3.) There is no dispute as regards the fact that in the merit list prepared in pursuance to the scheme of examination the petitioner had been placed at No.6 in the category of E.S.M (D.E.S.M.), Punjab. The allocation of posts in relation to the category to which the petitioner belonged was in the following order:- Sr. No. Name Post Allocated Preference 1 Sh. Karnail Singh PCS (Executive Branch) 1 st 2 Sh. Gurjinder Singh Benipal Tehsildar 2 nd 3 Sh. Jagtar Singh ETO 2 nd 4 Sh. Payush Chander Food & Supply Officer 4 th 5 Sh. Kanwaljit Singh AssistantRegistrar, Cooperative Societies. 2 nd 6 Harpreet Singh (petitioner) Employment Officer 6 th;