- (1.) Dr. Ravinder Paul Kaur petitioner was appointed to P. C. M. S. Class II in 1966. She was selected as Registrar in the same year and was further promoted as Lecturer and Senior Lecturer in Medical College, Patiala. On May 11, 1973, she was promoted as Assistant Professor Radiology on ad hoc basis which appointment was regularised on February 19, 1976. The petitioner is still holding this post in Medical College, Patiala.
(2.) According to the petitioner, three posts of professors in the Radiology Department of Medical College, Patiala are lying vacant. She approached the authorities for being considered for promotion to one of such posts. One of the conditions for eligibility for appointment as professor is five year's teaching experience as Assistant Professor in the speciality concerned in a Medical College after requisite post graduate qualification. The authorities declined to consider her case for promotion vide Annexure P. 5 ostensibly relying on the executive instruction dated October 15, 1975 (Annexure P. 6) that ad hoc service rendered by a Government employee prior to regular appointment should not be counted towards experience in the matter of promotion. The petitioner has consequently filed the present writ challenging the decision of the State of Punjab respondent No. 1 and Director, Research and Medical Education respondent No. 2 treating her ineligible for the post of professor by not counting her ad hoc appointment as assistant professor towards the requisite experience of five years.
(3.) The respondents, in their written statements, have reiterated that the experience of the petitioner as Assistant professor on ad hoc appointment from May 11, 1973 to February 19, 1976, could not be counted towards the requisite experience of five years as Assistant professor in. view of the decision of the Government contained in the letter of the Chief Secretary to Government, Punjab, dated October 15, 1975 (Annexure P. 6) and now under the Punjab Medical Education Service (Class I) Rules, 1978, which came into force on July 28, 1978 (hereinafter called the Statutory Rules).;