SARBJIT SINGH Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) DURING the course of motion hearing of the present case, counsel for the petitioners placed reliance on a single Bench decision of this Court in C. W. P. No. 5099 of 1985 (Constable Harvinder Singh and Ors. v. State of Punjab and Ors. ,) decided on 17th February, 1986. It was also pointed out that the Letters Patent Appeal against the said judgment had been dismissed but Special Leave had been granted by the Supreme Court and stay of the operation of the judgment delivered by the High Court on February 17, 1986, had also been ordered. The Hon'ble Judges constituting the Division Bench were prima facie of the opinion that the judgment of the learned single Judge as upheld in the LPA needed reconsideration in view of the fact that if the reservation for the Scheduled Castes/backward Classes was not made at the stage of deputing the candidates to the training course, then it would render the reservation made in their favour virtually redundant, as it would not be possible to get the requisite number of candidates from those classes for being available for promotion. The judgment rendered in C. W. P. No. 5099 of 1985 decided on 17th February, 1986, Annexure P-2 to the writ petition, was based on two earlier decisions of this Court i. e. Ram Kumar and Ors. v. The State of Haryana, 1983 (1) S. L. R 435. and Sardul Singh v. I. G. Police, Punjab 1970 S. L. R 505. In order to dispose of the present petition the above noted judgment will have to be specifically dealt with.

(2.) THE facts relevant for the disposal of the writ petition are that the petitioners are posted as Constables in the Punjab Police in various districts. It is averred that all of them are eligible to sit in the test which is held every year in the month of January for admission to the Lower School Course, which is a pre-requisite for promotion from Constable to Head Constable. It has been stated in the petition that Rule 13. 7 of the Punjab Police Rules, 1934, (hereinafter referred to as the 'rules') provides for the maintenance of List 'b' in which the names of all Constables eligible for being sent to the Lower School Course are entered. The eligibility is to be determined on the basis of educational qualification, years of service and also on the basis of a test, prescribed under the Rules and the Standing Order Annexure Rule. 2 framed under the Rule 13. 20. The Deputy Inspector General of Police of the Range approved the names of candidates forwarded by various police districts for the year 1990 and the requisite list was prepared, and the final list Annexure P-1 to the petition was finally published and it was indicated therein that the petitioners had been shown in 20 per cent reserved/waiting list, whereas all the Constables from Serial Nos. 1 to 110 were to be deputed for Lower School Course for the first session with effect from April 1 1990, and the remaining 110 Constables i. e. from 111 to 220 in the second session which was to commence from October 1, 1990. It has further been averred in the writ petition that in the list Annexure P-1, 36 candidates belonging to the reserved category of Scheduled Castes had been given precedence over the petitioners although most of them had got less marks than the petitioners in the test. It has also been stated that had no reservation had been made in the case all the petitioners would have been included in the list of 220 candidates selected for the Lower School Course. In view of these facts, the petitioners placed reliance on the decisions of the Full Bench of this Court in Sardul Singh's case (supra) and the Division Bench in Ram Kumar's case (supra ). It may be noticed at the outset that the Rules do not provide for any reservation for Scheduled Caste or Backward Class candidates, and the reservation has been introduced in the shape of a Roster under Annexure R-1 with the reply to the petition.

(3.) THE basic question that arises for determination is as to whether the preparation of the list B-1 constitutes a step in the process of promotion of Constables to Head Constables, because should it be so, then the reservation of vacancies for Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes has to be made at the stage of preparation of that list and before the selected Constables are sent for the course would be valid. In C. W. P. No. 5099 of 1986 and Ram Kumar's case (supra), it has been held that at the stage of preparation of this list, no process of promotion is involved and, as such, no reservation can be made at this stage in favour of the reserved categories alluded to above. The correctness of these decisions is under challenge before this Full Bench.