HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH **** ****

Vinod Kumar ... Petitioner VS.

State of Haryana & Ors. ... Respondents ****

1. Judgment reserved on 16.01.2026 2. Judgment pronounced on 13.03.2026 3. Judgment uploaded on 16.03.2026

4. Whether operative or full judgment Full 5. Delay in pronouncement of full judgment and reasons, if any NA ****

CORAM: HON’BLE MR.JUSTICE SANDEEP MOUDGIL ****

Present: Mr. DS Patwalia, Sr.Advocate with Mr. Gouravjit Singh Patwalia, Advocate and Mr. PC Kadyan, Advocate for the petitioner Mr. Rahul Dev Singh, Addl. AG Haryana Respondents No.4 to 10 already given up Mr. SS Surjewala, Advocate for respondent No.11 ****

Sandeep Moudgil, J.

(1). The jurisdiction of this Court has been invoked under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, inter alia, for issuing a writ of certiorari quashing the promotion order dated 16.08.2024 (Annexure P-5) to the extent junior to the petitioner, namely, respondents No.5 to 11 have been promoted to the post of Executive Engineers (Civil) by ignoring the candidature of the petitioner, who is higher in order of seniority as per the seniority list dated 22.10.2023 (Annexure P-4). Inter alia, a further direction is sought to the respondents No.1 to 3 to consider and promote the petitioner to the post of Executive Engineer (Civil) in the light of instructions dated 01.07.2022 (Annexure P-6).

(2). Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that the petitioner was initially appointed as Junior Engineer (Civil) vide order dated 16.09.2010 (Annexure P1) and since he was suffering from 50% locomotor disability, he was subsequently promoted as Sub Divisional Engineer (Civil)/Assistant Engineer (Civil) under 4% reservation meant for the disability quota. He then submits that the as per seniority list dated 22.10.2023 (Annexure P4) of Assistant Engineers (Civil), the petitioner was placed at Sr.No.11 whereas respondents No.5 to 11 rank much below in the rung of seniority than the petitioner.

(3). It is contended that promotion to the post of Executive Engineer is governed by the Haryana Service of Engineers (Group A) Public Works (Buildings & Roads) Department Act, 2010 and under Section 9 of the said Act, provides for promotion to be made strictly on the basis of seniority-cum- merit, however, his candidature has been ignored statedly on the ground that there is no vacancy earmarked for the PwBD category in promotional cadre.

(4). Reliance has been placed on the instructions dated 01.07.2022 for grant of reservation in promotion to the persons with Benchmark Disabilities under the Rights to Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 and Clause 8.1 of the said instructions which provides that a PwBD candidate otherwise eligible for promotion cannot be denied the same solely on the ground that no vacancy is earmarked as such for that category.

(5). Short reply dated 03.09.2025 has been filed by Anil Kumar Dahiya, Engineer-in-Chief, Public Works (B&R) Department, Haryana on behalf of respondents No.1 to 3, the relevant portion thereof reads as under:-

“3. That as per the instructions issued by the Government from time to time a roster register for Person with Disability has been prepared by the respondent department as per instruction dated

01.07.2022 and earmarked 3% from 01.01.1996 to 18.04.2017 and

4% reserved with effect from 19.04.2017 onwards for PwBDs.

4. That the instruction regarding Person with Disability issued on dated 01.7.2022 point No. 2.3 is reproduced here below:-

"Against the posts identified for each disability, one per cent each shall be reserved for PwBDs under clauses (a), (b) and (c), respectively, and one per cent combined, under clause (d) and (e) below unless otherwise excluded under the provisions of Para3 herein under:-

5. That the instruction issued by Government on 01.07.2022 at point 11 is reproduced here below:-

11. Effecting reservation Maintenance of Rosters

11.1 "Every Government establishment shall maintain, cadre-wise and group-wise, a separate 100-point vacancy