HARSIMRAN SINGH Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB AND OTHERS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner and the 5th respondent are members of Punjab Civil Medical Services. The petitioner is senior to the 5th respondent as a Medical Officer. The Departmental Promotional Committee met on 12th June 2007 and recommended the cases of promotion of both the petitioner and respondent No.5 as Senior Lecturer/re designated as Assistant Professor in the Department of Ophthalmology in the Government Medical College, Patiala. However, these promotions were made ad hoc and against vacant posts in direct quota and was fortuitous and made for the reason that the direct recruits were not available largely as a result of selections made by Punjab Public Service Commission, Patiala being mired in what came to be known and part of present folklore as the Ravi Sidhu 'cash-for-job' scam when a person by the name of Ravinder Pal Singh Sidhu was once the Chairman of Punjab Public Service Commission, Patiala and is now serving jail sentence. Ultimately, it was decided to fill up the posts of Senior Lecturers lying vacant for long in various departments of the Government Medical College, Patiala including in the Department of Ophthalmology by direct recruitment. As a result, three posts were advertised in the Department of Ophthalmology, the parent department of the petitioner and the 5th respondent. These three posts were distributed; one each for general category, Ex-serviceman and the reserved category of the backward class. Surprisingly, even though no posts were reserved for a candidate belonging to the scheduled caste category, in pursuance to the advertisement, the 5th respondent applied under the scheduled caste category on his own. Rather interestingly, two days before the selection process was to commence, a corrigendum was issued by the Director, Research and Medical Education, Punjab, Chandigarh reducing the number of posts advertised to two without giving any break up as to which of the three posts was abolished and from which category the other two posts are to be filled up. It is a matter of even greater surprise that the process of interviews was to be held on 4th January 2011. The DRME, Punjab then wrote to the Chairman of the Selection Committee informing him that in fact, for the interviews proposed to be held for induction in the Department of Ophthalmology, the posts to be filled would in sharp departure from what was professed in the advertisement stand reduced from three to two and instead of filing up the posts as per the prescribed advertisement, the posts would be filled up from the general category and the other from amongst the candidates belonging to the scheduled caste category, a class that had not responded to the advertisement nor could possibly have. Neither was any corrigendum issued to this effect nor any public notice put in public domain for candidates to know of the change.

(2.) It is the case of the petitioner that the 2nd respondent walked extra lengths and beyond the call of duty to accommodate the 5th respondent who is a member of the scheduled caste category in order to secure him the benefit of direct appointment. It is thus pleaded in paragraph 2 of the petition. A clear nexus is established from a succession of foreboding events including the very fact that even though a post for Scheduled Castes was not advertised, the 5th respondent applied in the scheduled caste category in advance and in anticipation of manna. Later on, the SC category was designed for him in the manner narrated above. The rules of the game were changed twice before the 5th respondent was selected and appointed to the post. As a result of the ad hoc promotion in 2007 accorded to both the petitioner and the 5th respondent, they had continued to serve from time to time in the temporary promoted post meant for direct quota and till the present regular recruitment was made resulting in the appointment of the 5th respondent as Assistant Professor. It is not disputed that those promotions were made till a regular recruitment is through. The regular recruitment had been delayed because of nullification of the process of direct recruitment of doctors by the State Government whose appointments could not mature because of the Ravi Sidhu scam.

(3.) A few further facts are necessary to be narrated for purposes of understanding the challenge in this petition to the appointment of the 5th respondent pursuant to Advertisement No.1 of 1st September 2010 seeking a writ of quo warranto and whether he is a usurper of public office.