JUDGMENT

Swatanter Kumar, J.

1. Leave granted.

2. The present appeal is directed against the judgment dated 16th May, 2011 of the High Court of Punjab and Haryana at Chandigarh whereby the Division Bench stayed the operation of the directions issued by the learned Single Judge in the order dated 10th March, 2011 and referred the matter to a larger Bench keeping in view the nature of the dispute and its significance.

3. This Court had issued directions on the same subject matter and approved the draft rules which were placed before it vide judgment dated 7th May, 1996 in Civil Appeal No. 8890 of 1996. Keeping in view the importance of the issues raised and the likelihood of such issues arising repeatedly before the High Court, this Court had issued notice vide order dated 3 rd June, 2011, declined to pass any interim order and directed that the matter be listed for final hearing at that stage itself. Resultantly, this matter was finally heard by this Court.

4. Before we dwell upon the legal issues arising in the present appeal, it will be necessary for us to refer to the basic facts giving rise to the same. The Appellant is an officer belonging to the Indian Administrative Services and h