State of Uttarakhand and Anr v. Rajendra Singh Arya and Anr

TARUN CHATTERJEE, J. 1. Leave granted.

¶2This appeal by Special Leave arises from the judgment and final order dated 19th of August, 2006 passed by the High Court " of Uttaranchal at Nainital in Writ Petition No. 258 (SB) of 2006 whereby the High Court had allowed the Writ Petition of the Respondent No.1, relying upon the law laid down by the High Court of Allahabad, Lucknow Bench in the case of In Re: Suresh Chandra Sharma & Anr. vs. State of Uttaranchal & Ors, [(2002) 1 UPLBEC 18), in which it was held that an incumbent shall be allowed seniority with all consequential benefits from the year of. allotment by the State Public Service Commission.

¶3At this stage, be it mentioned that the High Court by its impugned order, allowing the Writ Petition had observed the following:

"Following the judgment of the Lucknow Bench, this Court had also disposed of the Writ Petition no. 39(SB)/2005. Keeping in view of the said observations, we are of the opinion that the Respondents should be directed to treat the Petitioner having been promoted substantively as Forest Ranger from the year 1987-88 and to give consequential benefits to him. The Petitioner should be given seniority accordingly."

¶4Feeling aggrieved, the State of Uttarakhand h~s come up in this Court by way of a special leave petition w:-,i~h on grant of leave was heard in the presence of tht: learned counsel for the parties.

¶5We have hear9 the learned counsel for the parties and also examined the impugned order. On a plain reading of the impugned judgment of the High Court, it is crystal clear that the High Court, while allowing the Writ Petition of the Respondent _J.

ll!" No.1, had only relied on the decision.of the Lucknow Bench, In

Re: Suresh Chandra (Supra) which had held that an incumbent shall be allowed seniority with all consequential benefits from the year of allotment by the State Public Service Commission.

¶6This judgment rendered in In Re: Suresh Chandra (supra) was challenged by way of a special leave in Uttaranchal Forest Rangers Association (Direct Recruits) & Ors. v. State of Uttar Pradesh & Ors. [2006 (10) SCC 346] and the views expressed in the case of Suresh Chandra (supra) was upset by this Court by the aforesaid decision. While allowing the appeal of the State of Uttarakhand, this Court had set aside the judgment delivered in Suresh Chandra (supra) on which relfance was placed by the High Court in the impugned judgment.

¶7That being the position and in view of the fact that the .lo, decision on the basis of which the High Court had delivered its

judgment has already been overruled, we have no other alternative but to set aside the order and to send the matter on remand to the High Court to decide the same in accordance with law. While deciding the writ petition after remand, it is expected that the High Court will take into consideration the law laid down by this Court in the case of Uttaranchal Forest Rangers Association (supra).

¶8The impugned order is, therefore, set aside. The High Court is requested to decide the matter keeping in mind the views expressed by this Court in the case of Uttaranchal Forest Association (supra) within three months from the date of production of a copy of this order to it.

¶9For the reasons aforementioned, this appeal is allowed ._ to the extent indicated above. There shall be no order as to costs .

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CIVIL AP PELLA TE JURISDICTION: Civil Appeal No. 7597 of 2009.

From the Judgment & Order dated 19.8.2006 of the High Court of Uttaranchal at Nainital in Writ Petitioner No. 258 (SB) of 2006.

Su nil Kumar Singh, Anuvrat Sharma for the Appellants. M.N. Krishnamani Avtar Singh, Raj Siogh Rana, for the Respondents.