ONKAR SINGH Vs. SECRETARY TO GOVT HARYANA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner was selected as a clerk on regular basis by the Subordinate Services Selection Board, Haryana and he joined his duties as such in the Excise and Taxation Department on 17.1.1977. Before joining the said service the petitioner rendered Military Service during emergency with effect from 26.10.1962 to 10.1.1968 and thereafter he was discharged from military service on compassionate grounds.

(2.) On account of the external aggression by Chinese forces on the Indian Territory an emergency was imposed by the Government of India in 1962. In order to attract youngmen to join military service at that critical juncture the Central Government and the Governments of the States announced certain benefits to be given to those youngmen who join military service. Accordingly the Punjab Government framed rules under Article 309 of the Constitution of India known as the Punjab Government National Emergency (Concession) Rules, 1965 (hereinafter called the Punjab Rules). These rules were adopted by the State of Haryana also. Rule 4 of the said rules, as it stood originally in so far as relevant for our purposes reads as follows :-

(3.) The petitioner along with others being aggrieved by the amendment made by notification dated November 5, 1976 by the Governor of Haryana, challenged the validity and the vires of the said amendment by way of Civil Writ Petition No. 16408-17 of 1984 filed before the apex court titled as Kalu Ram Sangwan and others v. State of Haryana and another, while placing reliance upon an earlier judgment rendered by the apex court in Ex. Captain K.C. Arora and others v. State of Haryana and others, 1984 3 SCC 281wherein the said amendment was held to be ultra vires of the Constitution and bad, accepted the petition and held that the petitioners therein were also entitled to the benefit of Rule 4 as it originally stood and the mere fact that they were released from military service on compassionate grounds cannot disentitle them as they satisfy the requirement of Rule 4 of the Punjab Rules as it originally stood. It was further held by their Lordships that the grounds on which they were released were not material and if once they were held ex- military servicemen, they were entitled to the benefit of the said rules. Accordingly, a writ in the nature of mandamus was issued directing the State of Haryana and the State Transport Commissioner, Haryana, to confer the benefits of ex-military/air force service to those petitioners within a period of six months from the date of that judgment which was rendered on 10.5.1995.