SOMESH CHAUDHARY Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner who was in the service of the respondent Municipal Committee Executive Officer and whose service record was assessed by the screening committee appointed in terms of Section 38 of the Punjab Municipal Act, 1911 for purposes of his absorption in the newly constituted municipal service, i.e., the Punjab Service of Municipal Executive Officers, makes a grouse of the fact that the said screening committee has based its opinion on certain adverse entries in the service record which were never communicated to him and thus entries consideration is violative of the principles of natural justice. It is not disputed that the alleged adverse entries existing in the service record of the petitioner and particularly of the years 1970-71, 1973-74 and 1974-75, were never communicated to him. Rather this non-communication has been admitted in paragraph 4 of the reply filed on behalf of respondent Nos. 1 and 2 in the following words :-

(2.) In support of the contention that such a consideration by the screening committee on the basis of adverse service record which had not been communicated to the petitioner stands vitiated, his learned counsel places primary reliance on Gurdial Singh Fijji v. State of Punjab, 1979 1 SLR 804; Shrimati Prem Lata v. State of Punjab,1978 2 SLR 122; and Amar Kant Choudhary v. State of Bihar, 1984 1 SLR 470. In the very first judgment, the relevant observations in this regard are as follows :-

(3.) In the light of the above, the order Annexure P.1 terminating the services of the petitioner as an Executive Officer of the Municipal Committee, Pathankot, obviously is unsustainable and has to be struck down. I order accordingly but with no order as to costs.