SOHAN LAL Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB AND OTHERS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellant herein, was appointed by the Punjab Police as a Special Police Officer and worked as a daily wager in that capacity and was paid fixed monthly salary. The said Special Police Officer can be enrolled as a constable as well as per the relevant rules. For this purpose, certain required test is to be passed. The appellant passed that test. However, before he could be considered for enrollment as a Constable, he got involved in a case under Narcotic Drugs & Psychotropic Substances Act,1985. Charge was that 400 grams of opium was recovered from him. The trial was conducted in which he was acquitted. After his acquittal, his case for enrollment as a Constable was duly considered but had been rejected recording the following reasons:-

(2.) Against this rejection, the appellant filed writ petition which has been dismissed by the learned Single Judge vide the impugned order dated April 19,2012.

(3.) A perusal of the order passed by the learned Single Judge would demonstrate that two reasons have prevailed with the learned Single Judge, namely (i) the appellant is not a government servant under Article 311 of the Constitution and, therefore, the proposition that he has to mechanically get the benefit of acquittal cannot be accepted and (ii) that in any case, the respondents had considered the matter for enrollment of the appellant as a Constable but recorded the opinion that it was not desirable to recruit him in the police department for the reasons indicated in the order extracted above.