SANJEEV ARORA Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB AND ORS.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The rules would indicate that for a social studies Master an incumbent should possess a degree of B.A. with subject combination as approved by the Government from time to time. This would assume significance since the cause of the petitioner for promotion as a Master has been declined on the ground that he did not possess the subject combination as approved by the Government. The reply is silent on this aspect and repeated opportunities given to the respondents to clarify this aspect has yielded no result but when this Court was inclined to impose costs upon the respondents for impeding the progress of the writ petition, the learned counsel for the State on instructions from Sh. Rajiv Puri, Senior Assistant states that the subject combination as given in the advertisement (Annexure P-9) is the one which has been approved and should be construed valid for the purpose of answering this writ petition. The advertisement prescribes the following subject combination:-

(2.) The petitioner on the other hand has B.Com and M.Com. to his credit besides B.A. If the certificates appended to the petition indicating successful achievement of B.Com and M.Com. degrees earned by the petitioner are to be considered then subjects of Commerce, Accountancy, Statistics, Business Management and Business Administration form an integral part of the course and included therein and thus the reasoning adopted by the respondents to deny the petitioner promotion on this score would be highly absurd and arbitrary.

(3.) The facts would indicate that the petitioner was appointed as ETT teacher on 23.12.1997. The petitioner improved his qualification by acquiring M.Com. degree in the year 2001. Thereafter he completed his B.Ed. also in the year 2003. In this way the petitioner had acquired and accomplished the requisite qualification in terms of the rules and was thus eligible for being promoted as Social Studies Master.