Himachal Pradesh High Court
Varun Dhiman vs . State Of H.P. & Ors. on 5 April, 2022
Bench: Tarlok Singh Chauhan, Sandeep Sharma
Varun Dhiman vs. State of H.P. & Ors.
CWP No. 3366 of 2020 5.4.2022 Present: Mr. Rajinder K. Sharma, Advocate, for the petitioner.
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Mr. Ajay Vaidya, Senior Additional Advocate General, for respondents No. 1 and 2.
Mr. Sanjeev Kumar, Advocate, for respondent No.3.
Learned Senior Additional Advocate General has placed on record compliance affidavit. However, we are not at all satisfied with the contents thereof, reasons being that in the inquiry so held pursuant to the directions passed by this Court it was concluded as follows:-
"The Committee after taking into consideration the facts stated above, based on the record of the Directorate of Health Service HP, Judgment of the Hon'ble High Court of Himachal Pradesh (Annexure-B) and explanations submitted by the official concerned (Annexure-C), observed as follows:-
1. There was delay in compiling and processing of the joining information, which is evident from the record of the Directorate.
2. The health institutions could not provide and the Directorate could not compile the joining information in view of their over engagement in work relating to winter assembly session 9.12.2019 to 14.12.2019 and the budget assembly session which was earlier scheduled to be held from 27.2.2020 to 27.3.2020, and however which was truncated due to COVID-19 outbreak from 27.2.2020 to 23.3.2020, as assembly business has to be afforded due priority.::: Downloaded on - 05/04/2022 20:17:04 :::CIS
3. The Department of Health has already out-
sourced the Laboratory Testing Services as a measure to provide alternative testing .
facilities to the patients in addition to its owned lab facilities.
4. Thereafter, due to the imposition of lockdown (to contain the grave situation created by spread of COVID-19) i.e. from 23.3.2020, the staff matters e.g. joining information collection and compilation, that too for 3 no. of posts out of 102, could not be pursued on priority as the utmost priority at that time was to manage available resources and infrastructure to deal with the serious threat of COVID-19.
5. The health department was under pressure to make necessary arrangement for COVID-
19 prevention and containment since the govt. has sensitized the department well before actual imposition of lockdown.
6. The health department as a whole was over-
stressed and over-stretched during the COVID-19 lockdown period and matter regarding joining etc. could not be afforded due priority, that too inadvertently and during the grave situation created by the threat of COVID-19.
7. The Directorate of health Services has acted pro-actively on receipt of the representation from Sh. Varun Dhiman on 20.06.2020, thereafter the joining information available was processed accordingly and the request to recommend 3 candidates out of waiting panel was sent to Secretary, HPSSC on 14.7.2020.
::: Downloaded on - 05/04/2022 20:17:04 :::CIS8. The said request was turned down by the HPSSC vide its letter No. HPSSC-C(2)- 63/2017-3600 dated 29.7.2020 on the .
ground that "as per the Rules of Business and procedure of HPSSC Hamirpur, the waiting panel in respect of a post code remains valid upto one year from the date of recommendation in case of non-joining of earlier recommended candidates" the waiting panel for the concerned post ceased to be in existence on 15.4.2020, therefore, no further recommendation can be made from the waiting panel.
9. The HPSSC, on the direction of the Hon'ble High Court of Himachal Pradesh recommended the names of 3 candidates from the waiting panel vide its letter No. HPSSC-C-(2)63/2017-13921 dated 13.8.2021, in relaxation of the Rules of Business and Procedure of HPSSC, as the waiting panel ceased to be in existence on 15.4.2020.
However, the Committee while fixing the responsibility of the erring officials, then went on to observe as under:-
"The Committee was of the unanimous view that there was inadvertent delay in submitting/collecting and processing the joining information of 22 candidates who were recommended by the HPSSC from waiting panel on the request of the Directorate of Health Services HP. The Committee is of the considered view that there is no forceful and cogent evidence on record to fix responsibility of any officers/officials as there is shortage of required manpower, engagement of the available manpower in assembly related work, high priority afforded to the jobs ::: Downloaded on - 05/04/2022 20:17:04 :::CIS related to prevention and containment of COVID, lockdown due to COVID-19during the period of occurrence of the lapse. Therefore, the delay appears to be due to .
inadvertent and not intentional or out of inefficiency or negligence of any sort, as is substantiated by the explanation submitted by the concerned official and also the fact that the Directorate of Health Services has earlier requisitioned 22 candidates from the waiting panel and had offered appointment accordingly and 18 candidates joined the duties as prescribed."
It is evidently clear from the aforesaid that the conclusion drawn by the Committee is in contradiction and at variance to the findings and, therefore, cannot be sustained.
Confronted with this, learned Senior Additional Advocate General prays for and is granted two weeks time to obtain instructions. List on 19th April, 2022.
(Tarlok Singh Chauhan) Judge (Sandeep Sharma) Judge 5 April, 2022 th (himani/raman) ::: Downloaded on - 05/04/2022 20:17:04 :::CIS .
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