MANORAMA SOOD Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB ETC.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE short question for decision before us is whether the Appellant, who after selection had been appointed to a post in Kulu and Kangra districts before the reorganization of the State of Punjab on 1st November, 1966, but had not joined, was to be deemed to be serving in connection with the affairs of the Punjab State.

(2.) THE Subordinate Services Selection Board, Punjab, - -vide advertisement in the Daily Tribune of 28th of February, 1966, invited applications for the posts of 59 Social Studies Masters (Kangra 34, Simla 10 and Mohindergarh 15) and 17 Social Studies Mistresses (Kangra 13 and Simla 4), out of which 16 posts were reserved for Scheduled Castes/Tribes and 1 for Backward Classes. The scale of pay was Rs 110 - -8 - -190/10 - -250. The qualifications prescribed were B.A., B.T./B. Ed. with any of the following subjects:

(3.) THE writ petition filed by the Appellant for issuing a direction to the State of Punjab for appointing the Appellant as a Social Studies Mistress in the State of Punjab on the ground that she had been appointed in this State before the reorganization and she be deemed to have been serving in connection with the affairs of the existing state of Punjab was dismissed by the learned Single Judge of this Court. The learned Single Judge taking the observations of a Division Bench of this Court in Beant Singh v. The Union of India and Ors., 1969 S.L.R. 304 as obiter dictum did not follow those. The Appellant filed an appeal against the dismissal of her writ petition under clause X of the Letters Patent. As the correctness of the observations in Beant Singh's case were doubted before the Bench hearing the Letters Patent Appeal, the matter was referred to a larger Bench. This is how this Full Bench has come to be constituted to consider the question referred to in the beginning of this judgment.