Himachal Pradesh High Court
Sushma Kumari vs State Of H.P. And Others on 24 March, 2023
Bench: Tarlok Singh Chauhan, Virender Singh
IN THE HIGH COURT OF HIMACHAL PRADESH, SHIMLA
CWP No.1291 of 2023.
.
Date of decision: 24.03.2023.
Sushma Kumari .....Petitioner.
Versus
State of H.P. and others .....Respondents.
Coram
The Hon'ble Mr. Justice Tarlok Singh Chauhan, Judge.
The Hon'ble Mr. Justice Virender Singh, Judge.
Whether approved for reporting?1 No.
For the Petitioner : Mr. Sanjeev Bhushan, Senior
Advocate with Mr. Rakesh
Chauhan, Advocate.
For the Respondents : Mr. Anup Rattan, Advocate
General with Mr. I.N. Mehta,
Mr. Yashwardhan Chauhan,
Senior Additional Advocate
Generals, Mr. Ramakant
Sharma, Additional
Advocate General, Mr. J.S.
Guleria, Ms. Priyanka
Chauhan, Deputy Advocate
Generals and Mr. Rajat
Chauhan, Law Officer.
Tarlok Singh Chauhan, Judge (Oral)
The instant petition has been filed for grant of the following relief:
"That an appropriate writ, order or directions may very kindly be issued and the impugned office order 1 Whether the reporters of the local papers may be allowed to see the Judgment?Yes ::: Downloaded on - 24/03/2023 20:36:30 :::CIS 2 dated 14.03.2023, Annexure P-2 may kindly be quashed and set aside and with further directions to .
the respondents to allow the petitioner to perform the duties as Drawing Master at GSSS Chabutra, District Hamirpur, H.P., in the interest of law and justice."
2. The respondents have placed on record the instructions dated 23.03.2023, the relevant portion whereof reads as under:r "That in this regard, it is humbly submitted that the petitioner was inadvertently/wrongly offered appointment to the post of Drawing Master, on batchwise basis, vide office order dated 09.03.2023 annexed with the instant petition at Annexure P-1 since the batch of the petitioner is 8.09.2006 (the date of issuance of diploma in Art & Craft) which is evident from Annexure P-3 (colly), page 20 of the writ petition; whereas, running batch for the appointment of Drawing Master on Batchwise basis is 07.08.2004.
It is further submitted that this Hon'ble Court while deciding similar issue in LPA No. 143 of 2013 titled as State of H.P. & others vs. Harbans Lal & others, on 21.09.2013 has also held, as under:-
We hold, that the date on which a candidate qualifies the examination and not the date on which he is admitted into the academic session, becomes relevant for construing the ::: Downloaded on - 24/03/2023 20:36:30 :::CIS 3 expression "batch"/"batchwise" for appointment to the public post".
.
As such, the action of the respondent department in issuing Annexure P-2 is just, legal and fair. Hence, the same deserves to be upheld in the interest of justice and fair play and the instant petition deserves to be dismissed being devoid of any merit."
3. Having perused the material placed on record, we find that the instructions are not in tune with the records of the case as it is not in dispute that the petitioner did not qualify all the papers in diploma of Art and Crafts in August, 2004, however, she cleared the same in supplementary examinations held in October, 2004, as is clearly evident from her statement of marks appended with the petition at page 20 thereof.
4. It is altogether a different matter that such certificate was issued on 08.09.2006. However, that does not mean that the diploma of the petitioner has to be treated of the year 2006 as it is more than settled that it is the date of qualifying the examination which becomes relevant while determining the batch of a candidate.
5. In the given facts and circumstances of the case, we find merit in this petition and the same is accordingly ::: Downloaded on - 24/03/2023 20:36:30 :::CIS 4 allowed. The respondents are directed to permit the petitioner to continue working pursuant to her appointment .
made vide Office Order dated 09.03.2023 and the break of few days shall be counted for the purpose of seniority and other purposes.
6. In this view of the matter, the Office Order dated 14.03.2023 whereby the appointment of the petitioner has been withdrawn is quashed and set aside.
7. Pending application, if any, also stands disposed of.
(Tarlok Singh Chauhan) Judge (Virender Singh) Judge 24th March, 2023.
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