RAHUL SHARMA Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB AND ORS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This order shall dispose of a bunch of 34 petitions*, which have been directed against the action of the Respondent State of Punjab in respect of the recommendations for nomination to the Punjab Civil Services (Executive Branch) [for brevity, 'PCS(EB)'] under the Punjab Civil Services (Executive Branch) (Class-I) Rules, 1976 (for brevity, 'the Rules'). A direction has been sought for directing the Respondents to make recommendations for nominations by following justifiable and rational criteria of seniority-cum-merit for adjudging the suitability of eligible candidates. Another common prayer made in these petitions is that any recommendation process for nomination made by the State Government against 31 vacant posts of PCS (EB) from Registers A-I, A-II, A-III and Register-'C' to the Punjab Public Service Commission (for brevity, 'the Commission'), inter alia, in pursuance to Circular dated 4.11.2008 be set aside. Challenge has also been made to various instructions and criteria envisaged by Circular dated 4.11.2008 and instructions dated 16.6.1999. The Petitioners have also challenged the constitutional validity of Rules 9, 10, 11 and 15 of the Rules by urging that the aforesaid Rules are ultra vires Articles 14 and 16(1) of the Constitution.

(2.) Some detailed orders were passed by this Court during various hearings. Order dated 31.3.2009, passed in CWP No. 1628 of 2009, has noted the contention of the Petitioners that nominations have been made on the basis of political connection and other extraneous considerations. They argued that most of the candidates so nominated were ineligible even according to the guidelines issued by the State Government from time to time. The Division Bench has further recorded in its order that during the hearing this Court gathered the impression that there was no transparent, relatable to an objective and rational criteria for making the nominations in question and no such criteria was pointed out to the Bench. Accordingly, the learned Additional Advocate General had stated before the Division Bench that the Commission would not proceed with the selection process on the basis of nominations already made and stated that the State Government would undertake a review of the process of nomination to ensure that fundamental rights guaranteed to the eligible candidates in terms of Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution were not violated. Accordingly, a direction was issued to the State Government and the Commission not to proceed with the process of selection any further with regard to nominations made for Registers A-I, A-II, A-III and Register-'C' and the Bench had granted liberty to the State Government to review the entire process for making nominations and the process of evaluation of the merit of the eligible candidates by introducing a transparent, objective and rational criteria. The State Government was also granted liberty to place the result of any such review before the Court and to seek direction in the matter.

(3.) Subsequently the matters were listed for hearing a number of times. On 2.7.2009, the Additional Secretary to Government of Punjab, Department of Personnel filed an affidavit stating that on 28.4.2009, the Government constituted a Committee under the Chairmanship of the Chief Secretary to Government of Punjab, comprising of Financial Commissioner, Revenue, Punjab as well as Principal Secretary to Chief Minister, Punjab, as Members and Secretary to Government of Punjab, Department of Personnel as the Member Secretary to recommend the criteria to be adopted while making nominations to the PCS (EB) against Registers A-I, A-II, A-III and Register-'C'. On the basis of the recommendations made by the said Committee, the State Government decided to adopt the new criteria in place of the old criteria, which was adopted on 30.6.2009. The State Government also decided to cancel the pending process of nominations made on the basis of the earlier criteria. The new criteria has also been placed on record along with the affidavit dated 2.7.2009.