AMARJIT SINGH Vs. UNION TERRITORY, (CHANDIGARH ADMINISTRATION), ETC.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner was appointed as Lecture Assistant in the Punjab Engineering College, Chandigarh, on September 18, 1958, in pursuance of the recommendation made by the Subordinate Services Selection Board, Punjab, Chandigarh, to the Principal of the College. On October 14, 1960, he was promoted to the post of Head Lecture Assistant in the Applied Science Department and was confirmed as Lecture Assistant with effect from September 29, 1960. Sometime later, he applied for the post of Junior Laboratory Technician in the said College and was selected for the post. This selection was made after verifying from the Punjab Government that the Diploma in Civil Engineering of Madras College of Engineering, Madras, held by the petitioner was a recognised qualification for the post. The appointment of the petitioner as Junior Technician was made on February 26, 1964, on purely temporary basis pending selection by the Subordinate Services Selection Board. The petitioner appeared before the said Board and was selected. As a result of the recommendation of the Board, the petitioner was appointed Junior Laboratory Technician (Civil) with effect from August 1, 1964, on permanent basis. Thereafter, the petitioner improved his qualification by attending the course of Public Health Engineering of six months duration at the All India Institute of Hygiene and Public Health, Calcutta. He was allowed the leave of the kinds due to him in order to enable him to complete that course and at that time he gave a bond that he would serve the Punjab Engineering College for a period of at least two years. Before the expiry of those two years, the petitioner applied for some posts elsewhere and wanted the principal of the College to forward his applications to the concerned quarters which was refused on the ground that he could not be spared in the public interest. In the return it has been explained that he was under bond to serve the Punjab Engineering College for a period of two years and he could not be spared in view of the shortage of suitable persons and the emergency that was prevailing.

(2.) A post of Senior Laboratory Technician (Civil) fell vacant on November 28, 1968, which was filled by the promotion of Shri Dharam Chand Virdi, the senior-most Junior Laboratory Technician (Civil). With the promotion of Shri Virdi, Shri Harbans Singh Bhatia became the senior-most Junior Laboratory Technician and the petitioner No. 2. Another post of Senior Laboratory Technician was erected in 1964-65 in the Department of Post Graduate Course in Irrigation and Hydraulics at the College. For that post, Shri Harbans Singh Bhatia was the claimant but he was not appointed. One Shri R.D. Sood, who was working as a Sectional Officer in Irrigation Branch was appointed to that post. Shri Bhatia filed a representation against the appointment of Shri R.D Sood but before anything could come out of the representation, he unfortunately died. The matter was then taken up by the petitioner by filing his representation on April 4, 1969. Since Shri R.D. Sood was directly affected, he raised the plea that the diploma held by the petitioner was not a recognised one. An enquiry was made from the Punjab Government which confirmed the earlier certificate that the Diploma held by the petitioner was a recognised one. But, later on, it transpired that the Madras College of Engineering, Madras, was not run by the Government or by any Education Board. It was a private institution and the recognition of its Diploma was withdrawn in consequence of the reply received from the Director of Technician Education, Madras, to the Office Superintendent, Punjab Engineering College, Chandigarh, dated March 7, 1970.

(3.) A copy of this letter is Annexure R-3 and reads as under :-