HIMMAT SINGH Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Himmat Singh son of Waryam Singh, resident of village Amirpur Jattan, Post Office Tanda Ramsahai, Tehsil Dasuya, District Hoshiarpur has filed the present writ petition under Articles 226/227 of the Constitution of India against the State of Punjab, Director, Health & Family Welfare, Punjab, Civil Surgeon, Hoshiarpur and Senior Medical Officer, Primary Health Centre, Budhawar for the issuance of a writ, order or direction, specially writ of certiorari quashing the termination order dated 4.4.1997, Annexure P9, passed by respondent No. 2. The petitioner has further prayed that a writ of mandamous be issued to the respondents to re-instate him in service along with all consequential benefits.

(2.) The case set up by the petitioner is that he is an ex-serviceman and served the Indian Army w.e.f. 2.1.1971 till he attained the superannuation on 1.2.1995. When he joined the Army, he was having the qualification of matriculate. During the course of his military servie he underwent a course of three years which is known as 'General Nursing Class-I Examination' and thereafter the Army Medical Corps issued a certificate of technical proficiency 'General Nursing' to him, which is Annexure P2. This certificate has the equal value to 'male nurse of civil'. The petitioner at the time of his retirement was also issued graduation certificate which qualify him for reserved group 'C' post in which the prescribed qualification is graduate. According to the petitioner, as per the certificate he was eligible for appointment to the post of Pharmacist which was considered equivalent to the post of Nursing Assistant for which he was already having nursing dipoma. Moreover, directory of equation of service trades with civil trades issued by the Government of India shows that the diploma obtained by the petitioner is equivalent to general nursing etc.

(3.) The Subordinate Services Selection Board, Punjab issued an advertisment inviting applications for the posts of Male Multipurpose Workers against 401 vacancies. Out of these, 100 posts were reserved for Scheduled Castes, 20 for Backward Castes, 56 for Ex-Servicemen and 225 posts were meant for general category in the pay scale of Rs. 950-1800 and the qualification prescribed for the posts of Multipurpose Workers (Male) was Matric with Science Diploma in M.P.W. and knowledge of Punjabi language upto Matric standard. Since the petitioner fulfilled the requisite qualifications, he applied for the post. After the scrutiny of his application, he was called for the interview. On successfully qualifying the interview, the Secretary of the Board recommended his name to respondent No. 2 for issuance of appointment letter and in pursuance of the said recommendation, the petitioner was issued the appointment letter by respondent No. 2. The appointment was subject to the outcome of the decision of the writ petition referred to in the appointment letter. The writ was partly allowed by the Honourable High Court and directions were given to the department to examine the eligibility of all the appointees in the light of the said order and if it is found that other candidates were also ineligible to be considered for selection, then the services of such persons should be terminated after giving action oriented notice and opportunity of hearing. The case set up by the petitioner is that his services could not be terminated or discharged as he was fulfilling the qualification required for the post. Show cause notice was given to the petitioner on 14.3.1998 before passing the impugned order. He gave reply to the show cause notice on 20.3.1997. The reply of the petitioner was wrongly ignored by the respondents, who passed the termination order dated 4.4.1997, Annexure P9. The petitioner approached the respondents-authorities to withdraw this order, but to no effect. Hence, the present writ petition with the above prayer.