RAJ KUMAR SHARMA Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE dispute in this Letters Patent Appeal arising from SWP No. 153/1988 relates to appointment on the post of Lecturer in the Department of Medicine, Government Medical College, Jammu.

(2.) THE appellant filed the writ petition for quashing a government order dated 1.6.1986, by which private respondents were appointed as Lecturers in Medicine Department, Government Medical College, Jammu, and for a mandamus to appoint him on the post with consequential benefits of salary, promotion etc. The appellant meantime had been appointed as Lecturer in the Department of Medicine on ad hoc basis on 24 -10 -1986. Like him, some other doctors were also appointed on ad hoc basis. These appointments came in under challenge in different writ petitions. All the writ petitions including the one preferred by the appellant i.e. SWP No. 153/1988 were disposed of with certain directions, by a common judgment dated 19 -11 -1990. We shall refer to the findings of the learned single Judge and the directions issued at the appropriate place later in this judgment. Persons aggrieved by the said judgment including the appellant preferred Letters Patent Appeals. The appeal preferred by the appellant was registered as LPA No. 8/1991. On the prayer of the appellant, his appeal was segregated while other appeals were disposed of on 13.5.1993 with direction to the respondents to regularize the services of the appellant in consultation with the Public Service Commission on evaluation of their work and conduct based on the confidential reports within three months. Such evaluation was to be done by the Public Service Commission. Doctors so regularized were to be appointed as Lecturers with effect from the date from which they had been continuously working as Lecturers, while services of those not so regularized could be terminated by the respondents. The direction of the learned single Judge vide his order dated 19 -11 -1990 thus stood modified. The J&K Public Service Commission challenged the order of the Division Bench before the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court vide judgement titled J&K Public Service Commission v. Dr. Narinder Mohan and Ors., (1994) 2 SCC 630, held that regularization of ad hoc employees in violation of statutory rules by purportedly relaxing rules was not permissible as only condition of service could be relaxed and not the condition of eligibility. Accordingly, the order of the Division Bench was set aside and that of the learned single Judge dated 19 -11 -1990 (supra) was restored.

(3.) LPA No. 8/1991 by the appellant which remained pending as indicated above, came to be disposed of on 3 -2 -1999. In order to steer clear the above decision of the Supreme Court in J&K Public Service Commission v. Dr. Narinder Mohan and Ors., which apparently was/is against the appellant, a stand was taken that his writ petition had wrongly been clubbed and decided with other writ petitions, as in his case, the issue involved was distinct and same required independent consideration. Reliance was placed on the pleadings in the supplementary affidavit filed by the appellant and it was submitted that appellant had been held to be ineligible by the Commission as lacking in experience, but in the case of one Dr. Shashi Gupta who stood at par with him, a different treatment was given. Reference was made to 'experience certificate as in the case of Dr. Shashi Gupta and it was submitted that those certificates were not taken into consideration, unlike the case of Dr. Shashi Gupta. The Division Bench noticed that these pleadings were made for the first time in appeal and passed the following order : - -