VIRINDER MOHAN GUPTA Vs. PUNJAB STATE ELECTRICITY BOARD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE writ petition is a challenge to the order passed on 17.9.1992 by the respondents denying to the petitioner a consideration of his service from the initial date of appointment on 16.8.1976 for the purpose of computation of his period of service for fitting him in appropriate scales and for promotion. It is an admitted case that the petitioner was appointed after calling for applications for employment in the Electricity Board and offered the post through an order dated 16.8.1976 on scales applicable to the post. In the said order, it was stated that the appointment was temporary and terminable without notice. The services of such person appointed were regularized subsequently through an order dated 10.4.1980 but to take effect not from the date of initial appointment but from 1.4.1978. This is, therefore, taken to be a ground for a contention that a consideration for higher scales or for promotion could be only from the date of regular appointment and the period of ad hoc service cannot be counted.

(2.) THE counsel for the petitioner points out that the order of appointment initially made was through a regular recruitment process, after following all the formalities for public appointment and they are put on regular scales attached to the post. The nomenclature of the nature of appointment as ad hoc was in the manner stating that it could be subject to regularization afterwards and if not regularized, he could have been terminated at any time. The thrust of the argument, however, is that if there is no break in service and the ad hoc service itself was regularized there could not have been arbitrary fixation of date as 1.4.1978 as the date from when the petitioner could be treated as regularized.

(3.) THE impugned order is erroneous and arbitrary and it is set aside. The writ petition is allowed and the petitioner is entitled to all the consequential benefits treating the service period as commencing from the date when he joined the service pursuant to the order dated 16.8.1976. The petition is allowed with costs of Rs. 10,000/ - against the electricity Board.