Haryana State Electricity Board & Ors. v. Shoor Vir Singh & Ors.

CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE M.M. KUMAR HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE T.P.S. MANN Present: Mr. B.S. Rana, Advocate for the appellants

1. To be referred to the Reporters or not?

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

This order shall dispose of LPA Nos. 175 and 176 of 2011, as the common questions of law and facts have been raised. Both the appeals are directed against the judgment dated 19.04.2010, passed by the learned Single Judge disposing of two connected writ petitions holding that after bifurcation of circles the writ petitioners- respondents were posted in the newly created circle. No option was ever invited from them to give preference for one circle or the other. As a consequence, the seniority list, prepared in the absence of compliance of the requirement of inviting options, has been set aside LPA No. 175 of 2011 (O&M) -2- and directions have been issued to prepare the seniority list on the basis of continuous length of the service.

Mr. B.S. Rana, learned counsel for the appellants, at one stage has argued that options in fact were invited. On the basis of his argument, we have passed the following order on 25.02.2011, which reads as under:

Learned counsel for the appellants requests for a week's time to produce the record to show that the options as well as the tentative seniority list were specifically brought to the notice of the writ petitioner-respondent. This is required to be done because the learned Single Judge has recorded a categorical finding that the appellants had failed to establish in those proceedings that needful was done by bringing the question of options and the tentative seniority list to the notice of the respondents. List again on 07.03.2011.

On the subsequent date of hearing, again time was sought and no record was produced to show that the options as well as tentative seniority list issued by the appellants were brought to the notice of the writ petitiones-respondent to enable them to exercise options and/ or raise objections to the tentative seniority list. Therefore, we are not left with any other option except to agree LPA No. 175 of 2011 (O&M) -3- with the view taken by the learned Single Judge that neither any tentative seniority list has been brought to the notice of the writ petitioners-respondent nor any option was sent to them for preferring one circle over the other. Accordingly, the appeals are devoid of merit and does not warrant admission.

As a sequel to the above discussion, the appeals fail and the same are dismissed.

A photocopy of this order be placed on the file of connected case. (M.M. KUMAR) JUDGE (T.P.S. MANN) JUDGE March 09, 2011 Atul