OM PARKASH Vs. STATE OF HARYANA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Petition Om Parkash joined service as a Patwari on 11th August, 1950. His date of birth being 5th December, 1930, he was entitled to continue in service upto the date of his superannuation, that is, 31st December, 1988. However on 3rd November, 1986, the Collector, Karnal, issued notice (Annexure P.5) to the petitioner intimating that after the expiry of three month's notice period, the petitioner shall stand retired from service. This order has been challenged by the petitioner in the present writ petition on the ground that service record of the petitioner pertaining to the last ten years immediately before the impugned notice was issued, has been consistently good and on that basis, the impugned decision to retire him from service was wholly unwarranted.

(2.) In the written statement, the factual position is almost admitted and it has been pleaded that the petitioner ws awarded adverse reports for the years 1965-66, 1970-71 and 1973-74. Apart from these three adverse reports, no other material whatsoever has been disclosed on the basis whereof the petitioner could be retired from service.

(3.) Having heard the learned counsel and after going through the record, I find that the impugned order dated 3rd November, 1986 (Annexure P.5), in pursuance whereof the petitioner was retired from service, was wholly arbitrary and could not be justified on the material available on the record. But now, it is settled that for prematurely retiring a Government servant, his record of service for the last ten years immediately preceding the date of retirement has to taken into consideration. Since there is nothing adverse in the service record of the petitioner for the last ten years, the impugned order of his retirement is unsustainable in law. Otherwise also, the petitioner attained the age of 55 years on 5th December, 1985 and his entire service record was assessed at that time for arriving at the conclusion whether the petitioner was fit to be allowed to continue beyond the age of 55 years or not. Though that assessment went in favour of the petitioner, yet soon thereafter the impugned order of premature retirement ws issued, without there being any fresh material on the record. Now, since the petitioner has already been superannuated on attaining the age of 58 years, he cannot be reinstated back into service.