DHANNA SINGH Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioners were selected and recruited as constables in the Punjab Police and were enlisted on 20.6.1966, 25.11.1962, 7.4.1967 and 17.7.1967 respectively. Thereafter, the first three petitioners were promoted as Head Constables in the year 1976, whereas Petitioner No. 4 was promoted as such in the year 1979 and confirmed as Head Constables on 5.5.1979, 4.5.1979, 18.8.1978 and 7.7.1982 respectively. The petitioners were not being deputed for the Intermediate School Course provided under the Punjab Police Rules, which led to their filing of two writ petitions in this Court, being C.W.P. Nos. 498 of 1984 and 4207 of 1985, for a direction to the respondents for deputing them for Intermediate School Course as per their seniority when Head Constables junior to them were deputed for the said course.

(2.) The abovesaid writ petitions came up for hearing before a learned Single Judge of this Court and the same were allowed. The judgment is now reported as Dhanna Singh v. The State of Punjab, 1986 4 SLR 617. It may be observed here that it was contended before the learned Single Judge in the abovenoted case that the petitioners were working as Clerks in different Offices of the Police Department in the rank of Constables when they were asked to give their options as to whether they would like to be transferred to the Executive Clerical Cadre or would remain in the Executive Cadre of the Police Department and the petitioners opted for the former. It was the case of the respondents that as a result of this option not only they continued in the Executive Clerical Cadre, but were later confirmed as Head Constables without passing the lower school course, which in normal course would not have happened under the Rules. Since the respondent-Authorities were not in a position to produce any material before the learned Single Judge to show that as a matter of fact the two alleged Cadres named as Executive Clerical Cadre and Executive Cadre in the Police Department were created by any competent authority, the writ petition was allowed as it was held that there was no distinction between the Constable/Head Constables in the Executive Clerical Cadre and the Executive Cadre. It was observed in para 3 of the reported judgment in Dhanna Singh's case as under :-

(3.) On the basis of the directions given by the learned Single judge in the abovenoted cases, the petitioners were deputed for the Intermediate Course which they successfully completed in the year 1987. On their passing the Intermediate Course, they were promoted as Officiating A.S.Is., taking their date of passing the Intermediate Course into consideration and assigning them seniority accordingly. The case of the petitioners, however, is that they were entitled to be considered for promotion with effect from the dates their junior Head Constables were promoted as A.S.Is. and not from the date when they had passed the Intermediate Course. The arguments proceeds that for no fault of the petitioners, they were not deputed for the Intermediate Course according to their seniority as Head Constables, for which they had to come to this Court as mentioned in the earlier paragraph of the judgment. Had they been sent for the intermediate course according to their seniority as Head Constables, then they would have been promoted as A.S.Is. according to their seniority as Head Constables.