The single judge bench of Justice Jaishree Thakur of the Punjab and Haryana High Court in the case of Baljit Singh Ubhi V. State of Punjab and others held that it is a priori that once the Government has already granted the promotion then the pay of the petitioner in the regular pay scale of the post of Principal has to be fixed from the date on which the promotion was granted and not from the actual date of the promotion order.
BRIEF FACTS
The factual matrix of the case is that the writ petition is filed for quashing the order in which benefit of fixation of the pay was declined the same on the ground that there is no rule in the department for fixation of pay from back date with a further prayer for direction to the respondents to grant benefit of pay fixation to the petitioner from the date of his retrospective promotion.
The learned counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioner submitted that the claim of the petitioner has been rejected on the frivolous grounds that there is no rule in the department for fixation of pay from back date, whereas this Court in Varinder Paul Singh's case has clearly held that once the Government has already granted the promotion substantively to a person retrospectively, then the pay of the said employee in the regular pay scale has to be fixed from that particular date and not from the actual date of promotion. The learned counsel relied upon the judgements titled Varinder Paul Singh Versus state of Punjab and others and Jasvir Singh Versus State of Punjab and others.
The learned counsel appearing on behalf of the state has contended that the case of the petitioner for promotion and back-dated promotion was not put up and was not considered by the Sub-Committee. As such the promotion was not done as per Grant-in-Code. Therefore, it is clear that the promotion/retrospective promotion of the petitioner has not been recommended by the Director, Technical Education & Industrial Training—respondent No.2. The retrospective promotion was given by the College at its own level.
COURT’S OBSERVATION
The court while dealing with the judgement of Varinder Paul Singh Versus state of Punjab and others with the similar set of circumstances held that
“...If the competent authority is of the view that there are no instructions which grant benefits of promotion from back date or the benefits can accrue only from the date of joining, he is sadly mistaken. During the period in question the petitioner held the officiating charge of the post of Principal. It is a priori that once the Government has already granted the promotion substantively w.e.f June 2, 2014 then the pay of the petitioner in the regular pay scale of the post of Principal has to be fixed from June 2, 2014 and not from the actual date of the promotion order and accordingly, the last pay certificate is required to be drawn in the promotional pay scale of the higher post. Therefore, the first two bullets in the letter dated May 27, 2015 suffer from patent errors in reasoning and deserve to be set aside and the path restored to justice.”
The hon’ble court held that the petitioner has already been given promotion with retrospective effect i.e. from 01.02.2012, the date from which he was actually discharging the duties of Head of the Department independently. Once he was given promotion w.e.f. 01.02.2012, it is unjustified on the part of the respondents to deny him the fixation of his pay from the back date.
The case of the petitioner is squarely covered by the judgment of this Court in Varinder Paul Singh's case. A direction is issued to the respondents to refix the pay and allowances of the petitioner w.e.f, 01.02.20212 in terms of the promotion order with all consequential benefits.
CASE NAME- Baljit Singh Ubhi V. State of Punjab and others
CITATION- CWP No. 18859 of 2019 (O&M)
CORUM- Justice Jaishree Thakur
DATE- 16.12.22
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