- (1.) Vide this order two writ petitions, No. 7544 and 7635 of 1988 are being disposed of as the question of fact and law involved are common.
(2.) The challenge in these two writ petitions is to the determination of seniority of the members of the Punjab Civil Services (Executive Branch. The petitioners and the private respondents were directly recruited to the service. The private respondents were also like-wise recruited. However, they were given benefit of military service and tims fixed in the final seniority above the petitioners. This benefit was given under the Indian Armed Forces Personnel (Reservations of Vacancies in Punjab Civil Services (Executive branch) Rules, 1972, (hereinafter called the 1972 Rules). These Rules were framed under Articles 309 of the Constitution. The case put up by the petitioners is that since the private respondents were released from army on completion of their contractual tenure, they may not be treated as 'Demobilised Armed Forces Personnel' to seek benefit of seniority under the Rules aforesaid. Reference was made to the certificates of the private respondents (CWP No. 7544 of 1988, an nexure P-2/1 to P-2/6). In this writ petition reference is also made to the Demobilised Indian Armed Forces personnel and Reservation of Vacancies in the Punjab Non-Technical Service Rules, 1968, to aver that the private respondent could not take benefit of their military service as these rules were subject matter of consideration in the case of Inderjit Kaushik vs. The Punjab Public Service Commission and another, 1982 2 SLR 617, holding that the definition of 'released Indian Armed Forces Personnel' would mean only the person who had been demobilised from the Forces and not the one who had been released from the Army/Air Force after completion of his tenure. In this petition, the tentative seniority list prepared and circulated for inviting objections was also filed and the final order passed determining the seniority of the members of the service was also filed. The challenge was to the order dated April 8, 1988, fixing final seniority which is Annexure P-5 and the final list is Annexure P-5/1. On the basis of finalization of the seniority list, order Annexure P-6 was issued on July 26, 1988, promoting the private respondents and appointing them to the Indian Administrative Services which is also sought to be quashed through this writ petition. This writ petition, (No. 7544 of 1988), has been filed by Roshan Lal Kalsia and nine others. The other writ petition, (No. 7635 of 1988), has been filed by Gurinder Singh Grewal and S.K. Ahluwalia. Some of the private respondents are common in these two writ petitions.
(3.) The stand taken by the State as well as the Private Respondents in their written statement filed in these cases is common that the seniority has been finalized giving benefit of military service to the private respondents under the 1972 Rules. The ratio of the decision in Inderjit Kaushik's case , will not be attracted as the aforesaid case was under the 1968 Rules. The 1972 Rules specifically apply to the service in hand.;