Haryana High Court · 2011

HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE RAJIV NARAIN RAINA Present: Mr. D.S. Patwalia, Advocate and Mr. Salil Sablok, Advocate as Amicus Curiae. Mr. Suvir Sehgal, Addl. A.G., Punjab .

1. To be referred to the Reporters or not?

2. Whether the judgment should be reported in the Digest? M.M. KUMAR, ACJ.

The proceedings have been initiated by the Court on its own motion when notification dated 28.07.2011 issued by the respondent-State of Punjab was brought to the notice of this Court. According to the notification, one Smt. Surjit Kaur Sandhu, IAS (Retd.), was appointed as Member of the Educational Tribunal, under Section 7-A(5) read with Section 7- A(6) of the Punjab Affiliated Colleges (Security of Service) Amendment Act, 1974 (for brevity 'the Act')as amended in the year 2008 by Punjab Act No. 11 of 2008. There was a glaring illegality because the notification appointing the Member, was issued in violation of the provisions of Section 7-A of the Act, which required that there shall be Educational Tribunal consisting a Chairman and two Members. One of the Members is required to have administrative background and the other CWP No. 15724 of 2011 -2- one academic background. The other requirement was that the Chairman and the Members must be appointed by the State Government in consultation with the Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, Chandigarh. It was noticed by this Court that both these salient features of Section 7-A of the Act were violated. Accordingly, notice was issued by pointing out the aforesaid violation.

Keeping in view the aforesaid violation, the State of Punjab has now issued notification dated 20.10.2011 and has withdrawn earlier notification dated 28.07.2011 on account of the fact that the appointment of Smt. Surjit Kaur Sandhu, IAS (Retd.) was made without consultation with Hon'ble the Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court, Chandigarh. A copy of the notification issued today i.e. 20.10.2011 is taken on record as Mark 'A'.

Mr. Suvir Sehgal, learned Addl. A.G., Punjab states that presently the Educational Tribunal is comprised of a Chairman and one Member Smt. Surjit Kaur Sandhu, IAS (Retd.). He has further pointed out after reading the Section 7-A(1)(2) of the Act that each Educational Tribunal has to be comprised of a Chairman and two Members. One of the Members is required to be from amongst the persons who have administrative background and the other must have academic background. Presently, there is only a Chairman, namely, Hon'ble R.L. Anand, a Former Judge of this Court and there is no Member. Learned State counsel states that the CWP No. 15724 of 2011 -3- State Government is likely to appoint two other Members as per provisions of Section 7-A(2) of the Act. Accordingly, we direct that the needful shall be done within a period of two months.