- (1.) Petitioner joined the service as a clerk in March, 1961 in the Election Department of the erstwhile State of Punjab. He was thereafter promoted as an Assistant and later allocated to the State of Haryana at the time of reorganisation of the erstwhile State of Punjab in the year 1966. He was then posted as an Assistant in the office of Director, Urban Local Bodies, Haryana, where he continued working upto December 31,1968 when the Directorate of Urban Local Bodies was wound up. Petitioner was then absorbed in the Department of Urban Estates, Haryana, where he was promoted as a Head Clerk. With a view to ensure speedy and economic development of urban areas in the State of Haryana, the Haryana Urban Development Authority (for short 'HUDA') was constituted and all the functions of urban development, which were hitherto being performed by the Urban Estates Department, were transferred to it, excepting those in the Land Acquisition Offices and Land Acquisition Cell. In regard to functions wnich were transferred to HuDA, the Department of Urban Estates was abolished, and this decision was communicated by the State Government to the Director, Urban Estates, Haryana, as per letter dated September 6, 1978 (Annexure Rl with the written statement). The staff in the Urban Estates Department became surplus and the State Government decided to give options to all the employees for service with HUDA. It was decided that those who opted to join HUDA, would be given protection in the pay which they were drawing in the Urban Estates Department and that their inter se seniority would also be maintained. In the matter of service conditions, those employees were to be governed by the service Riles/regulations of HUDA but they would not be entitled to the grant of pensionary benefits. As regards the employees who did not opt to join HUDA, they were divided in two categories: (i) Those who were appointed on transfer from other departments. (ii) Those who were directly recruited in the department. Such of the employees who were appointed in the department by transfer and who did not wish to be absorbed in HUDA, were to be sent back to their parent department, while those who were directly recruited, were to be got absorbed in other departments with the help of Subordinate Services Selection Board and the Chief Secretary. The State Government fixed December 31, 1978 as the date by which the employees were to exercise their option as to whether they would join HUDA or not. It was also decided by the State Government that such employees who did not opt for absorption in HUDA, their services would be terminated under the rules. If, however, any official who wished to opt for absorption in HUDA after December 31, 1978, he would be taken by the said authority, subject to the availability of the post and subject to the condition that his seniority would be reckoned from the date when he opted to get absorbed in HUDA.
(2.) It is common case of the parties that the petitioner did not exercise his option before December 31, 1978 and was, therefore, treated by the department as one of those employees who did not want to get absorbed in HUDA. Therefore, in pursuance of the aforesaid decision of the State Government, he was to be absorbed in some other department as the post held by him in the Department of Urban Estates stood abolished. Consequently, he was appointed as Mining Accountant in the scale of Rs. 160-400 in the District Industries Centre, Ambala, as per office order dated March 24, 1979 (Annexure P8 with the replication). He did not join the Industries Department and then decided to exercise his option for joining HUDA on March 29, 1979. It appears that the petitioner did not join the Industries Department because the pay scale there was lower than the pay scale in HUDA. Although the option was exercised by the petitioner after the cut-off date, yet it was accepted by HUDA as a post available for him. Having joined the service of HUDA, the petitioner claimed that his inter se seniority qua those employees, who had opted prior to the cut-off date, i.e., 31.12.1978, should be maintained and he be given the consequential benefits of promotion etc. His claim was not accepted on the ground that he joined the service of HUDA after the cut-off date, and as per the decision of the State Government contained in the letter dated September 6, 1978 (Annexure Rl), his seniority had to be reckoned from the date when he opted to join the service of HUDA and he could not avail the benefit of his previous seniority. He then filed the present petition.
(3.) The primary grievance of the petitioner is that his inter se seniority qua those employees who opted prior to the cut-off date should be maintained and he should be given his promotions as and when persons junior to him were promoted by the HUDA. I find no merit in this grievance. As already noticed earlier, the petitioner had been given an option to join the service of HUDA and if he had exercised this option prior to the cut- off date, his inter se seniority qua other employees would have been maintained, as per the decision of the State Government. He chose to remain quiet and did not exercise the option. It was only when he was posted in the Industries Department, and found that his pay-scale there would be less than what he would get in HUDA, he chose to join the service of HUDA. Since he exercised the option after the cut-off date, his seniority had to be reckoned from that date and he cannot get the benefit of his previous service. If his inter se seniority could not be maintained he was equally not entitled to claim promotion on the basis of that seniority.;