IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH Date of Decision: 17^th of March, 2025 BHARTI AND OTHERS ..…...Petitioner(s)

V/s.

STATE OF HARYANA AND ANOTHER .......Respondent(s)

CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE SANJEEV PRAKASH SHARMA HON'BLE MRS. JUSTICE MEENAKSHI I. MEHTA Present Mr. Shalender Mohan, Advocate and Dr. Purushotam, Advocate for the petitioner. Mr. Sanjeev Kaushik, Addl. A.G., Haryana.

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SANJEEV PRAKASH SHARMA, J. (Oral)

1. The petitioners before us assail the introduction of Clause 4 of Appendix-B to the Haryana Technical Education Department (Group-A) Service Rules, 2019 (hereinafter referred as “the Rules of 2019”) whereby post of the Vice Principal-cum-Training and Placement Officer has been introduced to be filled by promotion from those who possess one year experience as the Heads of Department of the Government Polytechnics.

2. Learned counsel for the petitioners submits that so far as the post of Heads of Department is concerned, the same is to be filled from the cadre of that particular faculty. However, for the purpose of promotion to the post of Vice Principal-cum-Training and Placement Officer, seniority of all the cadres would merge which would go contrary to the provisions of Rule 11 of the Rules of 2019, which provides that the seniority inter se of members of the service shall be determined by the length of continuous service on any post in the service provided, where there are different cadres in the services, the seniority shall be determined separately for each cadre.

3. Learned counsel submits that since the Heads of the Department are from separate cadres, they cannot be merged together for the purpose of preparing seniority list for the post of Vice Principal-cum- Training and Placement Officer. It is submitted that by introducing the post of the Vice Principal-cum-Training and Placement Officer in Appendix B and providing channel of appointment by way of promotion, the chances for promotion of all the employees working in a particular faculty, where there are more than one Head of the Department, would be jeopardized and employees would suffer while officers working in other faculties where there is only one Head of the Department would get better chance of promotion. The inter se seniority list, which would be prepared, would affect the Lecturers’ and Senior Lecturers’ chances of promotion working in a particular department, like the petitioners, who are working in the Computer Department where there are 16 posts of HOD.

4. Learned counsel submits that the petitioners are still working as Lecturers and their chances of promotion would be reduced as inter se seniority would be prepared and the Heads of the Departments working in Computer Department, which are 16 in numbers, would not be further promoted resulting in the entire channel for promotion of all the employees reduced in the Computer Department.

5. We have considered the submissions of the learned counsel for the petitioners and carefully gone through the provisions of the relevant Rules.

6. We find that the provisions of the Rules which have been introduced in the State of Haryana vide notification dated 12.11.2019, provides avenues of promotion on each stage. As per Appendix B, one post of the Vice Principal-cum-Training and Placement Officer has been introduced, which did not exist in the earlier Rules of 1986. The channel of promotion has, thus, been increased in the new Rules of 2019.

7. The contentions of the learned counsel for the petitioners, on examination, are found to be misconceived. So far as the post of Head of the Department is concerned, the same has to be filled from that cadre alone, however, so far as the post of Vice Principal-cum-Training and Placement Officer is concerned, all the eligible officers, who are working as Head of Department in various faculties, would be considered by preparing their inter se seniority. Thus, a person appointed as Head of the Department say, in the Computer Faculty and a person, who is