HARDIP SINGH AND OTHERS Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Petitioners have filed this writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India against the respondents and have sought the quashment of the order dated 24/25.8.2000 vide which petitioner No. 3 was transferred from Municipal Corporation, Amritsar to Municipal Corporation, Jalandhar. It has been further prayed that a writ in the nature of mandamus be issued against the respondents directing Municipal Corporation, Amritsar to consider the claims of the petitioners for promotion against the nine vacant posts of Chief Sanitary Inspectors as it existed prior to 14.7.2000 and were supposed to be filled at the level of the Corporation as these posts were non-provincialised.

(2.) The case of the petitioners lies in a small compass. They were Sanitary Inspectors and the next channel of promotion was Chief Sanitary Inspector. Earlier the cadre of Sanitary Inspectors and Chief Sanitary Inspectors was localised and the posts of Chief Sanitary Inspectors were supposed to be filled by the Corporation at its own level. Subsequently, vide notification dated 14.7.2000 the cadre of Chief Sanitary Inspectors became a provincialised cadre of the employees of all the Corporations. Similarly the Government made notification and provincialised the posts of Sanitary Inspectors like Chief Sanitary Inspectors.

(3.) The controversy in the present writ petition revolves when the petitioners alleged that the posts of Chief Sanitary Inspectors which were lying vacant prior to 14.7.2000 ought to have been filled by the Municipal Corporation at its own level as by the cut-off date i.e. 14.7.2000 there was no provincialised cadre of a (sic) the Corporations. It is also the case of the petitioners that their case for promotion to the posts of Chief Sanitary Inspectors has to be governed by the old rules.