RAJIV AGGARWAL Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB AND ORS.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE short controversy involved in this petition relates to the fixation of inter se seniority between the petitioner and the persons who were lower in merit than him in the select list but were appointed to service as ETT teachers while he was denied appointment for an unjustified reason. Aggrieved by the action of the respondents in not offering appointment to the petitioner as per his merit, the petitioner approached the Hon. Lokpal, Punjab for redressing his grievance and to secure for himself an appointment on merit since he was higher in merit rank than many of the direct recruits tested through the same open competition and recruitment process.

(2.) THE Hon. Lokpal [Late Hon'ble Mr. Justice D.V. Sehgal (Retd)] entertained the request/complaint of the petitioner who heard parties and proceeded to make an elaborate report a copy of which is placed on record as P -1.

(3.) THE Hon. Lokpal noticed the allegations made by the complainant, the present petitioner, of demand of illegal gratification of Rs. 1 lac to offer an appointment and this aspect was adversely commented upon and the Government was asked to investigate the matter. In the main, the Hon. Lokpal in his order dated September 25, 2002 recommended to the Government that it should offer appointment to the petitioner as an ETT teacher and the complainant should be allowed to join duties. It was specifically recommended that his seniority would stand above 3 candidates namely Sarvshri Sanjeev Kumar, Pawan Kumar and Thakar Singh who stood below the complainant in the order of merit determined by the recruiting authority.