State Of Uttarkhand & Anr vs Rajender Singh Arya & Anr

State of Uttarakhand & Anr. ...

Appellants

VERSUS

Rajendra Singh Arya & Anr. ...Respondents

JUDGMENT

TARUN CHATTERJEE, J.

1. Leave granted.

2. This 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. v. State of Uttaranchal & Ors, [(2002) 1 UPLBEC 2

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.

3. At 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."

4. Feeling aggrieved, the State of Uttarakhand has come up

in this Court by way of a special leave petition which on

grant of leave was heard in the presence of the learned

counsel for the parties.

5. We have heard 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 3

of the Respondent 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.

6. This 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 reliance

was placed by the High Court in the impugned judgment.

7. That being the position and in view of the fact that the

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 4

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).

8. The 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.

9. For the reasons aforementioned, this appeal is allowed to

the extent indicated above. There shall be no order as to

costs.

...........................J. [Tarun Chatterjee]

New Delhi; ...........................J. November 16, 2009. [R.M.Lodha]