Military Nursing Service officers entitled to benefits meant for ex-servicemen when seeking re-employment in Punjab, rules High Court
Vijay Mohan
Chandigarh, February 5
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has ruled that former short service commission officers from the Military Nursing Service (MNS) are to be considered as ‘ex-servicemen’ for the purpose of re-employment in Punjab.
Hearing a plea by Capt Gurpreet Kaur, a Division Bench comprising then Acting Chief Justice Ritu Bahri and Justice Aman Chaudhary held that such officers cannot be denied ex-serviceman status under the “Punjab Recruitment of Ex-Servicemen Rules, 1982”.
The officer had cleared the examination for the Punjab Civil Services in 2021 but her candidature was rejected on the grounds that she was not an ‘ex-servicemen’ since she was not drawing a pension.
Aggrieved, the officer approached the High Court wherein she pointed out that the MNS was an Armed Force of the Union under the statute and the Punjab rules included short service commission officers who are released on completion of terms of engagement with gratuity under the definition of ex-servicemen.
On the other hand, it was in the central government rules that the term “Armed Forces” had been replaced with “Regular Army” after which the ex-servicemen status of MNS officers had become ambiguous due to a letter issued by the Kendriya Sainik Board in 2019 denying them ex-servicemen ESM status for central government.
A Single Bench of the high court had earlier dismissed her writ petition by observing that the Punjab rules could not expand the scope of the definition of ex-servicemen mentioned in the central rules.
The officer had then filed a Letter Patents Appeal before a division bench, averring that it was the Punjab rules which governed employment in the state government for Group A, B, C and D posts, which were materially different than the central rules that only applied to Group C and D posts under the central government.
She stated in her appeal that if the judgment were to be accepted then all past and future recruitments to Group A and B posts in Punjab would be rendered illegal.
Setting aside the judgement of the Single Bench, the Division Bench held that MNS is an Armed Force of the Union under law and employment in Punjab would be governed by Punjab Rules which recognise officers released on competition of terms with a gratuity as ex-servicemen.
“The eligibility conditions and benefits to be granted regarding reservations etc is the prerogative of the employer, which in the present case is not the central government but the Government of Punjab, which has notified its own rules framed in exercise of powers conferred under provisions of Article 309 read with Articles 234 and 318 of the Constitution of India,” the Division Bench observed in its order of February 3.
“The same cannot, as per settled law, be overridden by way of administrative instructions of the Punjab Government, much less by those of the Central Government, the Bench ruled while directing that the officer, if found to be in merit, be granted appointment with only notional benefits of service.
