RAMESH CHAND DHIMAN Vs. STATE OF H.P.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) BY means of this judgment we are disposing of the aforesaid four writ petitions being CWP Nos. 586 of 1999, 66 of 2000, 118 of 2000 and 170 of 2000 since common questions of law and fact arise for decision in these cases.

(2.) THE petitioners in all these cases have passed the Rangers Training Course with honours i.e. they have obtained more than 75% marks in this course and have been awarded honour certificate in Forestry by the Forest Research Institute and College, Government of India, Dehradun, It is not in dispute that the Recruitment Rules for the Himachal Pradesh Forest Service (Class II) (short HPFS II) were notified on 28th January, 1966 and provide that recruitment to the HPFS II shall be both by way of direct recruitment and by promotion, Columns 7, 10 and 11 of the schedule to the rules which are relevant for the purposes of this case read as follows:

(3.) THE Government of India approved a decision taken by the Council of Forestry Research and Education and decided that those trained forest Rangers who have passed the Rangers Course with honours would be eligible for direct admission to the 2nd year of the State Forest Service Course (Diploma Course) in Forestry. The States were directed to give wide publicity to this decision of the Central Government. This letter dated 28th July, 1983 reads as follows: