SUDESH PARIHAR Vs. STATE OF H.P.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The applicant in this original application has claimed the relief that order dated August 21, 2000 Annexure -A/ 1 forfeiting the promotion of the applicant for next five years may be quashed and set aside and the promotion of the applicant may be restored and applicant may be given all service benefits as Head Teacher from May 2000 i.e. the date of her promotion.

(2.) The case of the applicant as made out in the application is that she was promoted to the post of Head Teacher vide Annexure -A/2 and was transferred and posted as such in Govt. Primary School Gunaha. The applicant represented vide Annexure -A/3 dated May 12, 2000 that she was suffering from acute chest pain and high blood pressure and was undergoing treatment and no medical facility was available at Gunaha, therefore, she requested for two months time to join at the place of posting. The respondent No. 4 then called upon the applicant to submit a Medical certificate from a Medical Officer/Board counter signed by Chief medical Officer within a week failing which she would be ordered to join at the place of posting on promotion vide Annexure -A/4. In turn the applicant vide Annexure -A/5 informed respondent No. 4 that she had applied to the Chief Medical Officer for medical examination by a Medical Board and she would submit the requisite certificate when the Board sits for her medical examination. On June 19, 2000 the applicant informed respondent No. 4 that her application for her medical examination had been misplaced in the office of Chief Medical Officer, therefore, she had made another application on June 6, 2000 which has been marked to the concerned officer. She further informed that medical board sits only once in a week on Saturday and June 10, 2006 being second Saturday the Board did not sit and on medical examination of the applicant on June 17, 2000 she was referred for TMT test to Snowdon Hospital. The applicant further informed that after getting TMT Test conducted on June 24, 2000 she would produce the same before the medical board and thereafter the requisite medical certificate would be issued to her Vide Annexure -A/6, she appended copy of her application to the Chief Medical Officer and prescription slip issued from Solan Hospital. On June 22, 2000 the applicant again represented to respondent No. 3 videAnnexure -A/7 that because of her suffering from high blood pressure and Ingina she may be adjusted at a place where she could continue with her treatment or at Shimla and along with this communication she enclosed OPD slip issued from Snowdon Hospital Shimla. Vide Annexure -A/8 dated July 11, 2000 the applicant again informed respondent No.3 that her TMT test had been fixed for July 27, 2000 and also enclosed with Annexure -A/8 an outdoor Ticket issued from Indira Gandhi Medical College and Hospital Shimla and requested for one months more time to join at Gunaha. In the meanwhile she was deputed for preparing the voter list and was discharged of the said assigned job vide Annexure -A/9 on August 7, 2000. Thereafter the applicant on August 9, 2000 videAnnexure -A/10 represented that there was some improvement in her health but there were summer vacations in the school to which she had been transferred therefore sought the advise whether she would join n the office of Block Primary Education Officer Nalagarh or she might join in the school to which she was transferred on opening of the school after summer vacations. She received communication Annexure -A/11 dated August 14, 2000 informing her that last date to join on promotion was June 30, 2006, therefore she had been debarred from her promotion. On receipt of this communication the applicant vide Annexure -A /12 requested for furnishing her a copy of the order by which her promotion was cancelled. Thereafter she made representation Annexure -A/13 requesting for restoring the promotion against the background of her illness. Since no decision was taken on this representation, therefore the applicant sent reminder Annexure -A/14. The applicant claims that the impugned order Annexure -A/1 was passed without issuing her any notice or even informing her about it, therefore is illegal, wrong and arbitrary and injustice have been done to her. Hence this application.

(3.) The respondents contested the claim of the applicant and averred in their reply that after promotion of the applicant vide Annexure -A/ 2, the joining time to her was extended upto June 30, 2000 and it was made clear that no further extent ion of joining time would be allowed and in the event of the applicant not joining her duties at the place of posting, she would be debarred for promotion for five years. It is also claimed that the applicant wanted to be posted to some suitable place therefore did not join, therefore, she has rightly been debarred for the next promotions. It is also case of the respondents that the applicant failed to substantiate her alleged illness at the relevant time and only furnished a certificate from a private practitioner which was issued after her promotion order and she failed to produce the medical certificate of a medical board as was desired to be produced. Thus the sum and substance of the defence of the respondents is that the applicant wanted a convenient posting and did not want to join at the place to which she was posted therefore asked for extention on ground of ill health which she failed to substantiate, therefore was rightly debarred from being promoted.