36 years on, PSEB staff plea on promotion junked
Saurabh Malik
Chandigarh, June 19
Nearly 36 years wait by Punjab State Electricity Board employees appointed in the joint Punjab has come to a naught with the Punjab and Haryana High Court dismissing their regular second appeal filed way back in 1987. The appellants were contending that they were entitled to promotion in accordance with the unamended regulations of 1965.
It is suspected that many petitioners are no more there to pursue their grievances. Taking up the appeal, Justice Harsimran Singh Sethi observed the appellants had challenged in the civil suit the amendment to the Punjab State Electricity Board Service of Engineer (Electrical) Regulation, 1965, with effect from August 17, 1976. The second appeal was filed challenging the rejection of their claim by the courts below.
Justice Sethi took note of the contention that the amendment was carried out by the electricity board in the 1965 rules, as per which the appellant-plaintiffs were ineligible for consideration for promotion to the higher rank.
Justice Sethi asserted their counsel was unable to show that the claim raised in the present civil suit was different from the one in a writ petition filed in 1979. “The findings recorded by the courts below that once the claim of the similarly situated persons has already been rejected by the HC, no relief can be granted to the appellants also cannot be disturbed.”
