SARTAJ SINGH DHANDA Vs. STATE OF HARYANA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) By this judgment of mine, ten writ petitions bearing CWP Nos.4301 of 2013, 10223 of 2013, 6134 of 2013, 8105 of 2013, 8184 of 2013, 23444 of 2013, 2884 of 2014, 10922 of 2014, 12949 of 2014 and 2872 of 2014 shall be disposed of as common question of law and issues are involved. However, for the sake of convenience, the facts are being extracted from CWP No.4301 of 2013.

(2.) This petition has been filed for quashing of impugned order dated 20.02.2013, whereby, the private respondents have been promoted to the post of Elementary School Headmasters, whereas, they are not fulfilling the eligibility conditions as prescribed under Rule 9(a) of Haryana School Education (Group-C) State Cadre Services Rules, 2012 (hereinafter called as "the Rules, 2012). A further prayer has also been made for issuance of a direction to the official respondents to consider the case of the petitioners to the post of Elementary School Headmasters as they are fulfilling all the eligibility conditions prescribed under the Rules from the date, the private respondents have been promoted. Learned counsel for the petitioners submits that the new rules called the "Haryana School Education (Group C) State Cadre Service Rules, 2012" were notified on 11.04.2012 and the private respondents were not possessing the essential qualifications prescribed under the said Rules, still they have been promoted. He further submits that though the petitioners were possessing the requisite qualifications as prescribed under the Rules, 2012 still, their case has not been considered. The impugned order of promotion of private respondents has been passed by considering the requisite qualifications/experience prescribed under the old rules of 1998.

(3.) Learned counsel for the petitioner has relied upon the judgments of Hon'ble the Apex Court in case State of Punjab and others vs Arun Kumar Aggarwal and others, 2007 10 SCC 402 as well as judgments of this Court in cases Satish Kumar vs State of Haryana and others passed in LPA No.1121 of 2014, decided on 10.09.2014 and Vikas Sharma vs State of Haryana and others in CWP No.19263 of 2012 decided on 20.01.2014, in support of his contentions. Learned counsel for the respondent-State submits that the posts of High School Headmasters were notified by the Government of Haryana vide Notification dated 02.04.1998, whereby, 60% posts were to be filled up by promotion from amongst the Headmasters of Middle School/Master, as per roster given in Appendix 'E', 7% posts were to be filled up by promotion from amongst the Sanskrit Teachers as per roster given in Appendix 'E', 7% posts were to be filled up by promotion from amongst the Hindi Teachers as per roster given in Appendix 'E', 1% post was to be filled up by promotion from amongst the Punjabi Teachers, as per roster given in Appendix 'E' and 25% posts were to be filled up by direct recruitment, as per roster given in Appendix 'E'. In notification dated 12.05.1998, different qualifications and experience were mentioned. Rules were amended in the year, 2012 and promotions were made on the basis of old rules as the posts were created prior to coming into existence of the amended Rules, 2012.