MOHINDER SINGH CHAHAL Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) All the 83 petitioners in the instant writ petition were promoted to the rank of Deputy Superintendent of Police from within the State Police Service, except petitioner No. 16 Paramraj Singh, who is stated to have been appointed as Deputy Superintendent of Police by way of compassionate appointment. Appointment to the cadre of Deputy Superintendents of Police is regulated by the Punjab Police Service Rules, 1959 (hereinafter referred to as 'the 1959 Rules'). The appointment of the petitioners as Deputy Superintendents of Police came about during the years 1975 to 1988.

(2.) The grievance of the petitioners in the instant writ petition, originally pertained to the intent of the authorities to induct respondent No. 4 into the State Police Service as a Deputy Superintendent of Police. It is pointed out in the pleadings of the instant writ petition, that the first effort in this behalf was made when a request was made to the Home Ministry, Government of India, to induct respondent No. 4 into the State Police Service. According to the petitioners, this request was rejected by the Government of India. During the course of hearing of this case, Sh. Gurpreet Singh, learned counsel representing respondent No. 1, produced the relevant record. It reveals that a request was made by the father of respondent No. 4 to the Government of India for her absorption and transfer into the cadre of the State Government. This request was declined by the Ministry of Home Affairs.

(3.) It would be relevant to notice that respondent No. 4 had not been inducted into the State Police Service when the instant writ petition came to be filed originally. On the basis of the statutory rules, referred to above, by an order dated 23.2.1998, a Division Bench of this Court passed an interim order staying the absorption of respondent No. 4 against the post of Deputy Superintendent of Police, in the Punjab Police Service. During the pendency of the instant writ petition, however, an order dated 11.9.1998 came to be passed by the State Government, whereby respondent No. 4 was appointed as a Deputy Superintendent of Police "in view of the extremely compassionate circumstances flowing from the killing of her only brother (Sh. Avinder Singh Brar, IPS) at the hands of the terrorists" by relaxing the provisions of 1959 Rules, i.e., by invoking Rule 14 thereof. The order also expressly notices, that the determination at the hands of the State Government, to appoint respondent No. 4 as a Deputy Superintendent of Police in the Punjab Police Service, would be subject to the decision rendered by this Court in CWP No. 11548 of 1996, i.e. the present writ petition. After the order dated 11.9.1998 was passed by the State Government, the instant writ petition as originally filed, was amended, and the order dated 11.9.1998, whereby respondent No. 4 was appointed as Deputy Superintendent of Police in Punjab Police Service, was impugned.