The main legal point established in the judgment is that SRO 181 of 1988 was not applicable to voluntary land donations and was prospective in operation. The judgment clarified the distinction between 'donation' and 'acquisition' and emphasized that the right to employment did not accrue under SRO 181 of 1988 in the case of voluntary donations.

JUDGMENT :

(Sanjeev Kumar, J.)

1. This Letters Patent Appeal by the State of J&K (now UT of J&K) and the Department of Health & Medical Education is directed against a judgment dated 14.03.2017 passed by a learned Single Judge of this Court [‘the Writ Court’] in a writ petition SWP No. 1901/2013 titled ‘Parvinder Singh vs. State and others’, whereby the Writ Court has allowed the writ petition filed by the respondent [“the writ petitioner”], and the appellants herein stood directed to offer employment to the writ petitioner within a period of eight weeks from the date of impugned judgment in terms of SRO 181 of 1988.

2. Before we advert ourselves to the grounds of challenge urged by Mr. Amit Gupta, learned AAG appearing for the appellants, we deem it necessary to give brief resume of the factual antecedents leading to filing of the writ petition and the present appeal.

3. The case set up by the writ petitioner in the writ petition was that his father, namely Sh. Balwant Singh, was the owner in possession of land measuring 01 kanal 19 marlas falling in khasra No. 987 of village Chhajala, Tehsil Mendhar, District Poonch. Out of the said land, the father of the writ petitioner donated one kanal of land [“subject land”] to the Health Department for construction of a building for setting up of a Primary Health Center in the year 1981. It was pleaded that the father of the writ petitioner had given one kanal of land being more than 50% of his agricultural land without receiving any compensation in lieu thereof. It is not the case that the land was so donated with a precondition in writing by the petitioner’s father to the Health Department.

4. In the year 1988, the Government issued SRO 181/1988 dated 03.06.1988 thereby providing for appointment of one member of the family which is left with less than 50% of its agricultural land, on account of same having been acquired by the Government for public purpose, against a post available at the lowest rank of the cadre in a service for which such person is eligible. This SRO 181 of 1988 further provided that if a vacancy was not available in the Department for which the land had been acquired, then General Administration Department shall make such appointment in any other Department where such a vacancy may be found available. It was the further case of the writ petitioner that his father, who was an illiterate person was never made aware by the appellants or any other Authority about the issuance of SRO 181 of 1988 and, therefore, he could not make any request for employment.

5. It is pleaded that only when the petitioner did his 10+2 in the year 2011 that he came to know that the Health Department has made certain appointments in lieu of the land donated by some people. The writ petitioner, on enquiry, found that two persons said to be similarly situated with the writ petitioner and who are Waseem Ahmad Khan and Razia Bi having been appointed against class-IV posts in the Health Department in lieu of land donated by them for construction of a hospital building/residential quarters at PHC Chatryal (Poonch) vide Government Order No. 622-HME of 2010 dated 28.12.2010.

6. The writ petitioner too moved an application before the then Health Minister for his intervention and direction to the Health Department to provide him also the employment as against land so donated The case of the writ petitioner, as was claimed, was processed at different levels.

7. The matter came up for consideration before the Secretary to the Government, Health and Medical Education Department, the appellant No.2 herein, who, vide his order bearing No.HD/NG/06/2013 dated May, 2013, rejected the claim of the writ petitioner.

8. Feeling aggrieved, the writ petitioner by way of writ petition SWP No. 1901/2013 challenged the aforesaid communication of appellant No.2 and sought a direction for his appointment to any available class-IV post in the Health Department on the analogy of aforesaid persons, namely Waseem Ahmed Kh