Judgment

Misra, J.-Leave granted.

2. In these set of appeals arising out of Special leave petitions, the common question which has come up for consideration is the entitleme­nt towards medical expenses of the Punjab Government employees and pensio­ners as per the relevant rules and the Government policy. In pith and substance, the scale at which their reimbursement is admissi­ble towards their medical expenses incurred in a non-governmental hospital. It is not a new phenomena, such employees have been and are still raising such issue repeatedly with the change of government policy. With the changing scenario, political, social and financial the policy of reimbursement is not static. In the recent past in spate of petitions dealing with the 1991 policy of the State Government this Court settled this principle in the case of Surjit Singh v. State of Punjab & Ors.1 and State of Punjab v. Mahinder Singh Chawla2 . Conse­quent to the effect of the said and other decisions and their result­ant impact on the State exchequer and other factors led the State Government to reconsider its old policy of 1991 by making necessary modifications, deletions through order dated 9.9.94 till i