Chandigarh, March 14
For a government, which doles out Rs 2,200 crore annually to the Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) to provide free power to run farm pump sets, it needs only Rs 60 crore to ensure a better future for rural children.

A study, “Professional Education in Punjab: Exclusion of Rural Students”, which has been commissioned by Punjabi University, in its policy recommendations to the government maintains that the latter will need to shell out only Rs 60 crore per annum to create an additional 25 per cent seats in professional institutions of the state.

Almost all leading private institutions have already applied for seat enhancements in most courses for the next academic session so it will be easy for them to have a special quota for rural students, according to sources.

The study claims the government can meet the entire expenditure of 6,000 additional seats so created taking into account an average annual fee of around Rs 1 lakh in professional institutes. “These seats can be given to rural students who secure 60 per cent and above marks in class X and XII examinations,” recommend Professors RS Ghumman, Sukhwinder Singh and JS Brar, who have been behind the study.

The researchers claim this is a very small amount to equip rural students, who are at present virtually out of the orbit of higher education, with better professional skills. It has been recommended that the funding should be performance linked and an undertaking be taken from students stating that they would refund this money three years after passing out of the course.

The study has also recommended the establishment of a Rural Education Commission to ensure equity in accessibility and affordability of higher education to rural children. It has also called for a Punjab Education Development and Regulatory Authority (PERDA) with statutory powers to prevent excessive commercialisation and profiteering in non-aided private institutions. 

The body can regulate fee structure and service conditions also, according to the recommendations. The Punjabi University researchers also assert that freebies like free power to farmers and SCs and BCs would not help these categories to attain socio-economic mobility. 

It recommends that instead of allowing the mushroom growth of private schools, the existing government and private aided schools should be strengthened and monitored on a regular basis. Establishment of regional centres in rural areas by universities on the pattern of Punjabi University is worth replicating, they say.

The study has emphasised that the government must allocate at least 6 per cent of the state income to the education sector, 30 per cent of which should go to higher education in a specified time and systematic manner. In 2007-08, the state had earmarked only 11.88 per cent of the budget for the education sector and only 10 per cent of for higher education.

The researchers, meanwhile, claim if the government displays political will, resources can be mobilised and made available for education. There has been an under-mobilisation of funds to the tune of Rs 5,000 crore by successive governments and this issue alone, if addressed, could provide adequate resources for education.

Patiala, March 14
Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal gave a clarion call to people of Punjab to defeat the Congress for the sake of an all-round growth of the state. Criticising the UPA-led central government, Badal said states had been made dependable on the Centre over years for their development plans as all the financial powers and resources remained wrested by the Centre itself.

“The states can grow even further for which, the central assistance is easily available. For Punjab, required funds could be secured only if the NDA comes to power at the Center,” he said.

The Chief Minister accused the Congress for discriminating against Punjab by depriving it of its capital city of Chandigarh, control over river waters and Punjabi-speaking areas.

“The classic example of recent discrimination with Punjab is the faulty parameters of the farm loan waiver scheme. Of Rs 71,000 crore of under the scheme, our state, which contributed the maximum percentage of wheat (71 per cent) and rice (37 per cent) this year to the central pool, could get only 1.5 per cent share,” Badal said.

The SAD-BJP alliance would win all parliament seats in the state with a comfortable margin as the Congress had no convincing election issue and futuristic plans for the betterment of Punjab.

In Patiala, he said probable Congress candidate Preneet Kaur was no match to Prof Prem Singh Chandumajra as he was a seasoned politician and had a long stint of serving people of the state.

Welcoming the decision of Satnam Singh Behru-led Indian Farmers Association to extend support to the SAD-BJP alliance candidates, Badal said this would prove to be the last nail in the coffin of the Congress in the Lok Sabha elections in Punjab.

Blaming the Congress for the plight of farmers in the country, Badal demanded that the recommendations of the Swaminathan Committee on agriculture should be immediately implemented in toto.

Behru said his association had decided to support the SAD-BJP alliance as the Congress had always betrayed the people of Punjab.

Professor Chandumajra said he would leave no stone unturned to get the special package or a large industrial project from the central government for the development of the Patiala area in case he was elected MP.

Sangrur, March 14
The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has made up its mind to field a Rajput candidate from the Gurdaspur Lok Sabha seat in the current Lok Sabha (LS) elections. The BSP has already announced candidates for 12 LS constituencies of the state. 

It has given party tickets to five persons from the general category (two Brahmins, two Jat Sikhs and one Mahajan), three persons from Backward Classes and four persons from Scheduled Caste communities.

Party’s national general secretary and in charge of Punjab BSP affairs Narender Kashyap said here today that the BSP had prepared a panel of candidates for the Gurdaspur LS seat, but it was yet to be approved by the party high command. As and when it was approved, the party candidate for Gurdaspur would be announced, he added.

Kashyap further said on Gurdaspur seat the BSP wanted to give an opportunity to a strong leader of the Rajput community. He said other political parties levelled allegations on the BSP that it encouraged casteism, but people of the Sarvjan Samaj knew very well that it was a wrong propaganda against the BSP.

Kashyap and president of party’s state unit Avtar Singh Karimpuri were here in connection with the launching of an election campaign of BSP candidate from Sangrur LS seat Madanjit Singh Balian, a retired SP. Madanjit said he would run his election campaign in a big way as everyone knew about him in the Sangrur LS constituency.

Kashyap said the BSP had fielded Brahmin candidates from Patiala and Amritsar, Jat Sikhs from Sangrur and Ferozepur, a Mahajan from Bathinda, a Ramgarhia from Ludhiana, a Gujjar from Anandpur Sahib, a goldsmith from Khadoor Sahib and four candidates for reserved seats, Hoshiarpur, Jalandhar, Faridkot and Fatehgarh Sahib. He said selection of the candidates had been made in Punjab in the light of social engineering formula, adopted by the party in Uttar Pradesh (UP).

Kashyap said the BSP would now adopt the UP formula in the country to form a government of the BSP and make party president Mayawati Prime Minister. He said people were unhappy with the Congress-led UPA government and the BJP-led NDA. So they were now looking towards the BSP as an alternative of both alliances. 

Bathinda, March 14
Deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal today said that the suspense over the SAD (B) candidate for the Bathinda Lok Sabha seat would end soon. He also said the SAD (B) would fight the next Assembly elections in Haryana on party symbol. Later, the party would enter politics in Rajasthan.

Sukhbir was talking to media on the sidelines of a conference on environment protection organised today at the Baba Farid Institute of Higher and Foreign Studies, Deon, near here. He was chief guest on the occasion.

Taking a dig at the Congress, he said the party was “confused and directionless”. “There is no coherence among its members. The party has not even been able to decide upon a single candidate for the Lok Sabha while the SAD (B) has already completed its first phase of campaigning.”

He said that for the past two years, the Congress had been alleging political vendetta by the SAD (B). “I, in the capacity of the home minister, ask them to provide me with the name of a single member that they claim was killed by our party to settle political scores.”

“The Congress has “no sincere agenda”. On the contrary, we have a mission for every sector, be it power, irrigation, poor, urban infrastructure or roads,” he said.

“Contesting on the development plank, the SAD-BJP BJP combine would sweep all the 13 Lok Sabha seats in the state. The Congress would be routed out from Malwa as people are fed up with the unfocussed party. Even if it fields its strongest candidate from Bathinda, he will be defeated,” he added.

Lashing out at the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre, he said, “While the countries like the US, Germany and the UK have charted out revival packages to overcome economic recession, the UPA was still clueless on that. There had been no financial package to revive the tanked domestic stock markets.”

On a call given by the Akal Takht and Sikh organisations to agitate for getting the deras of the Sacha Sauda sect closed throughout the state, he said, “No effort would be spared to ensure peace in the state.”

Meanwhile, a press note issued here by the SAD (B) said district vice-president of the Congress and a member of the Rama Mandi Municipal Council, Madan Lal, along with hundreds of supporters today joined the SAD in the presence of the party president Sukhbir Singh Badal during a function at Rama Mandi.

Hoshiarpur, March 14
Neither of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) nor the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and recently formed Third Front will get majority after the Lok Sabha elections. The country will have a hung Lok Sabha.

President of Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) Simranjit Singh Mann today said many of the leaders of the constituents of recently formed front aspired to become Prime Minister.

There was one post of Prime Minister, but leaders of the Third Front were after it. The SAD (A) will contest all 13 seats of Punjab and one of UT Chandigarh independently. Complete sovereignty for Punjab would be the party’s plank .

Mann said Punjab should be declared a buffer state between Pakistan and India to avoid confrontation between the two countries.

The SAD (A) has declared candidates for Chandigarh, Sangrur, Ferozepur and Fatehgarh Sahib constituencies. The remaining candidates will be announced next week.

Mann opposed the appointment of SS Virk as Director-General of Police, Maharashtra, and said after the notification for the LS elections, his appointment was violation of the election code of conduct. The SAD (A) has complained to the Election Commission of India against Virk's appointment.

The appointment of Virk was most unfortunate as he was facing charges of corruption and amassing money beyond known sources of income. Referring to political uncertainty in Pakistan, Mann said it was a serious threat to peace in India.

Mann alleged that people of Punjab were facing corrupt rule of a father and his son. Parkash Singh Badal and had bribed all SAD leaders to install his son Sukhbir Singh Badal as Deputy Chief Minister. After the LS elections, he would make Sukhbir Chief 
Minister of Punjab.

Mann added that though Sukhbir had studied in some UK university, he did not have any degree. 

Patran (Patiala), March 14
Preneet Kaur, MP, claimed today that the UPA government, led by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, had introduced various schemes and projects aimed at empowering women. While Patran and its adjoining areas had tasted development during the Congress regime, the Akali Dal government had failed on all fronts, she said.

Addressing Maharaja Aggarsain Sewa Dal volunteers at Patran, 60 km from here, Preneet refuted the allegations that the UPA government had discriminated against Punjab. The Centre had been very generous in doling out grants to the Punjab government, she claimed.

In fact, all development projects currently going on in Punjab had been funded and financed by the UPA government, she claimed. She alleged that Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal was claiming credit for the projects by inserting full-page advertisements in newspapers.

Paying rich tributes to Maharaja Aggarsain, Preneet urged the electorate to vote and support the Congress for development and bright future of youth and women.

Earlier, inaugurating a free eye-checkup and operation camp organised by the Lions Club here, Preneet regretted that health-care services in rural areas were in a very bad shape.

Preneet charged that Akali Dal leaders were registering false criminal cases against Congress workers.

The Congress MP recounted the various welfare schemes introduced by the UPA government for the benefit of the “aam aadmi”. The Manmohan Singh government had introduced insurance and health-care schemes for the unorganised labourers in the country.

Besides, the guarranted employment scheme for the rural poor near their home had also been introduced by the UPA government, she said.

Preneet Kaur, who appeared confident of being re-nominated as Congress candidate from the Patiala parliamentary constituency, appealed to Congressmen to work unitedly so as to strengthen hands of UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Sangrur, March 14
Due to delay in promotions for a long period in the Police Department, resentment prevails among hundreds of Assistant Sub Inspectors (ASIs) and Sub Inspectors (SIs). This resentment can be assessed from an anonymous printed appeal, being sent to ASIs and SIs in this belt by unknown persons.

In this appeal, one “Chhota Badal” has been held directly or indirectly responsible for the delay in the promotions. “Chhota Badal means Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal,” it was revealed to this reporter.

Sources in police circles said many ASIs had not been promoted since 1992 due to non-fixation of their seniority so far, despite the fact that IPS officer HS Sidhu had already submitted his report to the state government regarding the fixation 
of seniority.

They also said the Badal government was not implementing that report as it would harm the interests of some of the policemen, closely linked to political functionaries in the government.

In the appeal, the Punjab government has been asked why it can not revert those policemen who were recruited as sportspersons, while it had already reverted the policemen whose family members had been killed by militants.

Due to promotions to many constables recruited in the PAP, the affected ASIs and the SIs have reportedly been facing humiliation as some of those constables were now in the rank of Inspector. Relatives of affected policemen (ASIs and SIs) have also been asked to protest against “Chhota Badal”.

In the appeal, the government has also been warned about facing a revolt in the police as the affected ASIs and SIs can not tolerate excesses for a long time.

The government has also been reminded about an earlier revolt in the Punjab Police in 1978. It has also asked the affected constables, ASIs and SIs to give a befitting reply to the government.

Another appeal made to the affected policemen is to circulate 10 copies of it for securing justice. 

Amritsar, March 14
Even as the website of the CBI still shows that dreaded militant Pritam Singh Sekhon, former self-styled chief of Khalistan Liberation Force, is still alive, his (Dr Sekhon’s) family is all set to organise his death anniversary at his native Dulman village, near Malerkotla, tomorrow.

According to sources, Dr Sekhon, who was involved in the kidnapping of Romanian diplomat Liviv Radu in 1991, an attempt on the life of the then DGP DS Mangat and the assassination of former Punjab Finance Minister Balwant Singh, had reportedly been killed a decade ago in Pakistan. He was living with two of his companions in the Sialkot area of Pakistan when he reportedly asked his companion to shoot him in 1996-97.

Another theory is that he had first killed his companion and then shot himself as he was disillusioned and desperate due to a failure of the Sikh movement. However, the Indian government felt that Dr Sekhon slipped to the US by hoodwinking the intelligence agencies after spreading the rumour of his death.

However, his mother declared him dead, though after a gap of 12 years of his death.

The page-one advertisement published in a leading Punjabi daily on behalf of his mother Gurnam Kaur (71) announced that her son died during “Sikh struggle”and his first death anniversary would be held tomorrow. The representatives of various radical outfits are likely to participate the bhog.

Dal Khalsa spokesman Kanwarpal Singh said he met Dr Sekhon on many occasions in 1994-95. He, however, refused to reveal the place of such meetings. While confirming the death of Dr Sekhon, he said it was “tragic and sad”.

Sekhon basically belonged to Hansa village. His father had settled with his in-laws at Dulmaan village immediately after his marriage. Sekhon’s father had died when he (Pritam) was four years old.

Sekhon had become the head of the KLF after the killing of Gurjant Singh Budhsinghwala in Ludhiana in July 1992. He had done a course in veterinary science from Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana. He was considered a confidant of Daljit Singh Bittu, convener of the Shiromani Akali Dal (Panch Pradhani). He is said to have left for the US in 1992 and after two-year stay there, he moved to Pakistan in 1994. He is survived by his son and wife, who are US citizens.

A lookout notice issued by Interpol (A-357/7-1997) describes Dr Sekhon’s date of birth as 1959 and says he is wanted in connection with a number of militant activities.

Chandigarh, March 14
After Som Parkash, who belongs to the 1993 batch of the IAS, decided to put in his papers to contest the coming Lok Sabha (LS) elections, his senior colleague, Dr Swarn Singh, has also decided to quit the country’s premier civil service to join electoral politics.

Dr Swarn Singh, an allopath by avocation, belongs to the 1982 batch. He may be eyeing the Congress ticket from Jalandhar. Som Parkash has already been allotted BJP ticket from Hoshiarpur. Though Punjab bureaucrats are known for interest in politics, there are not many who quit service to join electoral politics.

Other than Sirdar Kapur Singh, if any other civil servant quit job and got noticed in politics, it is Simranjit Singh Mann. He quit as an IPS officer in protest against Operation Bluestar and got elected to the Lok Sabha with a record margin of votes in 1989. Mann now heads the Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar).

Other than Mann and Sirdar Kapur Singh, who remained MPs, a few middle-rung civil servants, too ventured into politics after quitting jobs. Sukhjinder Singh, for example, worked in the Police Department before he got into politics. Former Punjab Finance Minister Balwant Singh was in the Revenue Department.

Anup Singh Minhas, one-time confidant of Mann, was also from the police. One of the sitting MLAs of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha was also a Tehsildar before he quit and joined the ruling SAD-BJP alliance. Another MLA from Gurdaspur district had worked in the Police Department.

The Congress candidate who opposed Bollywood star Vinod Khanna in the 2004 LS elections from Gurdaspur was none other than one-time Punjab police chief Pritam Singh Bhinder. Incidentally, Bhinder belongs to the rare club of police officers who were police chiefs in more than one state.

Bhinder had remained police commissioner in Delhi and also headed the Punjab Police during militancy. He, however, took to politics only after retiring from service. His wife, Sukhbans Kaur Bhinder won from Gurdaspur for five consecutive times.

Other than these civil servants, Ram Rattan Bhardwaj joined the Congress before the 2002 Assembly elections. Though he did not contest any election, he was made Deputy Chairman of the Planning Board of the state by the previous Congress government headed by Capt Amarinder Singh.

Tarlochan Singh Sund is another example. He quit central service (IFS-B) to join politics and remained MLA from the Doab (Banga). Before quitting, he worked in the Regional Passport Office at Chandigarh and also as an OSD to the then Chief Minister Beant Singh.

And Punjab also has the distinction of a retired judge becoming the Chief Minister of the state. He was Justice Gurnam Singh. Other than civil servants, a number of academicians, doctors and lawyers have held key positions in political parties as well as elected governments.

Bathinda, March 14
Most of the columns of Punjab government’s official website do not have updated information.

The biodata of Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, who assumed charge of the post in the second half of January 2009, becomes available as one opens the website, http:// punjabgovt.nic.in. But the updated details of the state and important telephone numbers, email ids, new government orders, press statements, important events etc have been apparently considered less important.

The main feature of the website, Punjab at a glance>Agriculture-Economy’s Mainstay, shows most of the data based on more than decade-old figures.

Despite much change in status of the state, details still show the state on the top in the list of states in per capita income of the country. On details relating to the per capita availability of foodgrains per annum, it has data of 1997-98, when Punjab had the highest of 904 kg standing way above the average for the country.

To show dairy farming as ancillary avocation to agriculture getting popular, data of 1997-98 has been made available, when the production of milk touched 7.16 million tonnes. It shows per capita availability of milk of 845 gm per day was highest among all other states of India.

What’s New slot opens gradation list of IAS/PCS officers, which is marked as new, but the details lag far behind. Many of officers have been transferred from those positions, so the “unreliable” information provided here is of little use.

The slots under Important Information on welcome page, marked “new”, have almost stale details.

In this slot, the recent government order is of the District Magistrate, Rupnagar, which was issued for cyber cafes (under Section 144, CrPC) dated January 19, 2008. Further, the recent press note is regarding the 17th National Forest Games of November 4, 2008.

The e-mail directory does not have IDs of various IAS officers. Moreover, in the list, only 17 out of 20 deputy commissioners of the state have been mentioned. The e-mail directory does not have information on the Amritsar Municipal Corporation, while the rest four are there.

In the telephone directory, Barnala, Pathankot and Mohali districts have been ignored and telephone numbers of DC office, district development and panchayat office, chief agriculture office and district revenue office have not been uploaded.

Being elections days, it should be the duty of the department concerned to provide updated information for public convenience.

Chandigarh, March 14
The post of the chief information commissioner (CIC) in Punjab has been lying vacant for the past seven months and it appears that the Punjab government is least mindful of the necessity of the appointment of the CIC.

The Right to Information Act states that every state information commission “shall” have a chief information commission and “may” have state information commissioners, not exceeding 10 in number.

Interestingly, however, the three-member committee that makes appointments to the information commission met recently and appointed another state information commissioner (SIC) but did not take any decision regarding the appointment of a CIC. In fact, a proposal submitted by the department of information and technology to the government regarding the appointment of the CIC did not even forma a part of the agenda.

“The three member committee including Punjab Chief Minister, leader of the Opposition and the Information Technology Minister met on March 2 and appointed the ninth SIC. This appointment was done in tearing hurry to beat the election code of conduct but no intention was shown by the government to appoint a CIC,” added a source.

It was on July 29, 2008, that former Chief Secretary Rajan Kashyap retired as the CIC. A week later the government issued a single line order stating that PK Verma, state information commissioner, would look after the work of the CIC. The government conveniently overlooked the fact there was no provision for the appointment of the interim or ad hoc CIC in the RTI Act.

A public interest litigation was filed in the High Court for the appointment of a regular CIC and the court directed the state government to ensure that the appointment of the CIC takes place within four weeks and the case was adjourned for January 16, 2009. But on this date, the government asked for an adjournment on the grounds that leader of Opposition Rajinder Kaur Bhattal had rejected the panel of names sent to her and she was not available for a meeting of the committee. This was, however, denied by Bhattal in a press statement later.

The case was adjourned to March 16 with direction to the government to appoint a regular CIC and to place the orders on the records of the court before February 28.

Ludhiana, March 14
The Vigilance Bureau has summoned Bharat Inder Singh Chahal, former media adviser to former Chief Minister Punjab Amarinder Singh, on March 17 in connection with the City Centre scam case. This came to light when Amarinder's counsel was requesting the court not to fix the case for framing charges till the Vigilance Bureau (VB) completed investigation. He said even now the bureau was summoning persons and recording their statements.

Vigilance officials in the court did not say anything. However, sources said, Chahal had been summoned for questioning by the VB. He was granted bail by the Punjab and Haryana High Court in 2007.

On June 10, 2007, he joined the investigation, but later on not chargsheeted. Though on the same day he was arrested in a case of land grab and attempt to murder. Meanwhile, Sessions Judge GK Rai today fixed April 18 for framing charges against the accused in the City Centre case.

Hearing on the application moved by Amarinder for initiating contempt of court proceedings against VB officials was adjourned till April 4. Arguments on the application moved by the Vigilance seeking action against the former CM on the charge of producing false medical certificate before the court to get exemption from personal appearance, would also be heard on the same day.

The prosecution and defence counsel accused each other for delaying the trial. Amarinder was provided with the copies of statements pertaining to certain witnesses recorded by the Vigilance under Section 164, CrPC, before the magistrate.

The court directed the prosecution for filing reply to the application moved by accused Manmohan Singh seeking directions to the Vigilance producing the orginial site plan, which they had claimed to have recovered from him. Special public prosecutor Mitter Sain Goyal verbally stated that the prosecution was not in possession of the original site plan. The documents which were recovered were placed before the court. Hearing on this application was adjourned to March 21.

Chandigarh, March 14
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has held that the Food Corporation of India (FCI) is violating Section 16 of the Punjab Value Added Tax Act, 2005. The Section prohibits the corporation to charge sales tax for goods falling under Schedule “A”, pertaining to tax-free items.

The ruling by the Division Bench of Justice MM Kumar and Justice HS Bhalla comes on a petition filed by Garg Cattle Feed Industries against the corporation and other respondents.

The Bench, at the very onset, observed: The short question arising in the petition is whether the respondent-corporation is entitled to charge tax on the sale of damaged food grains, despite the fact that it is a tax free item falling under Schedule “A” of the Act.

The Bench observed the petitioner was engaged in manufacturing and sale of cattle feed and was registered as an approved party for purchase of damaged food grains from the corporation. The petitioner was awarded tender for the disposal of damaged food grain for cattle feed.

The petitioner pleaded it was not liable to pay sales tax on damaged food grains, as no tax was payable under the Act on such sales and, in fact, the corporation was actually prohibited from “collecting sales tax on the sale of tax-free goods as per Section 16 of the Act”.

The Bench asserted in “such like circumstances, the petitioner had no other option but to knock at the door of this court by filing a writ petition” for directing the respondents to deliver the damaged food grains, subject to the payment of amount mentioned in the tender, “without charging any VAT/sales tax”.

Speaking for the Bench, Justice Bhalla ruled: In fact, the corporation is violating Section 16 of the Act, which prohibits it to charge any sale tax for the goods, which fall under Schedule `A'. What is exempted under the Schedule is cattle fodder and the definition of cattle fodder would also include damaged rice.

“In the present case, viewing the matter from every angle, it is crystal clear that the petitioner is not liable to incur liability of sale tax and the question posed is answered in favour of the petitioner and against the respondents....The writ petition filed by the petitioner succeeds and is allowed”.

Before parting with the orders, Justice Bhalla ruled: Accordingly, the respondent-corporation is directed to deliver the damaged foodgrains to the petitioner without charging any VAT/sales tax, since the goods are cattle feed and are exempt from levy of tax under Section 16 of the Act.

Chandigarh, March 14
Punjab has violated all the norms of justice in a service matter. After losing legal battle “up to the last court” on technical grounds, the state reinstated a cop dismissed from service and allowed him to join duty. 

But simultaneously placed his services under suspension from the date of his dismissal some eight years back. The Punjab and Haryana High Court believes by doing so, the state and other respondents acted “contrary to all canons of justice”.

Ex-constable Massa Singh was placed with the 80th battalion of Punjab armed police, when his services were initially placed under suspension on March 9, 1988, on the allegations of creating nuisance in a mess under the influence of liquor. 

The suspension was followed by an inquiry and dismissal from service on May 24, 1988. The dismissal orders, however, failed to find favours with the courts. A special leave petition too was dismissed in July 2006.

He was allowed to join duty, but the services were placed under suspension and a fresh departmental inquiry was initiated, compelling him to move the high court through counsel RS Bajaj.

After hearing Bajaj, Justice Permod Kohli observed: “It appears the respondents decided to inquire the matter primarily on the ground that the earlier order of dismissal, and that of the appellate authority, and the inquiry, were set aside on technical grounds, due to non-observance of principles of natural justice.

“It is, however, not disputed that the subsequent inquiry relates to the same incident and on the same facts and circumstances. 

From the perusal of the judgment of the trial court, it is evident the order of dismissal of the petitioner and that of the appellate authority were set aside not merely on the basis of non-observance of principles of natural justice, but also on the ground that the inquiry was not conducted in accordance with law, and the petitioner was not permitted to defend himself….

“I am of the considered view that once the order of dismissal and the appellate order have been set aside by the civil court and the order of the civil court has been upheld up to the Supreme Court, the respondents cannot be permitted to re-agitate and re-determine the issue afresh and nullify the judgment and the decree of the civil court by their administrative action.

“Apart from that, fresh inquiry is not sustainable in law. The respondents have placed the petitioner under suspension retrospectively with effect from the date of his dismissal, which order has been quashed by the civil court and has attained finality. Such an action is also contrary to all canons of justice”.