GURMEET SINGH Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These appeals arise from the judgment dtd. 17/8/2012 rendered by the Division Bench of High Court of Punjab and Haryana whereby, the intra-court appeals(Letters Patent Appeal No. 2309 of 2011 and Letters Patent Appeal No. 2306 of 2011) preferred by the appellants herein were dismissed and the judgment dtd. 11/8/2011 passed by the learned Single Judge of the High Court was upheld. The Learned Single Judge rejected the Civil Writ Petitions(C.W.P. No. 17985 of 2008 (O&M) and C.W.P. No. 6623 of 2004 (O&M)) preferred by the appellants for grant of benefits under the Proficiency Step-up Scheme, 1988 and Assured Career Progression Scheme, 1998, by accounting for their entire service period including that in the work charged establishment.

(2.) Shri P.S. Patwalia, learned senior counsel appearing on behalf of the appellants, vehemently and fervently contended that the Government of Punjab has on its own volition, extended the very same benefits of Proficiency Step-up to other employees situated at par with the appellants, and thus, the differential treatment meted out to the appellants tantamount to hostile and subjective discrimination, which is violative of Article 14 of the Constitution of India. In this regard, learned senior counsel drew the attention of this Court to the Policy Circular dtd. 13/3/1996, issued by the Department of Irrigation and Power (Irrigation Personnel-III), Government of Punjab, whereby, it was decided that the Government Policy contained in the letter dtd. 7/5/1993 would be relaxed and the services of the work-charged staff of Ranjit Sagar Dam would be regularised. He submitted that clause (a) of the said Policy Circular clearly provided that the past services rendered by the employees on work charged/daily basis will be treated as qualifying service for pensionary and all other consequential benefits.

(3.) Learned senior counsel further referred to various communications and circulars, more specifically to the Circular dtd. 12/4/2005 issued by the Chief Engineer, Irrigation Department, Punjab, whereby, it was communicated as below: -