IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH

107+238 CWP-24673-2025 (O&M)

Date of Decision: February 12, 2026 Bhupesh Kumar and others ....Petitioners VERSUS Punjab Health System Corporation and another ...Respondents CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE HARPREET SINGH BRAR Present : Mr.Bikramjit S. Patwalia, Advocate with Mr. Harpreet Singh, Advocate for the petitioners.

Mr. Deepanshu Mehta, Advocate for respondent No.1.

HARPREET SINGH BRAR, J. (Oral)

1. The present petition has been filed under Article 226/227 of the Constitution of India praying for issuance of a writ in the nature of certiorari for quashing the order dated 06.08.2025 (Annexure P-14) vide which the case of petitioners have been rejected for regularization of their services in terms of policies dated 18.03.2011 (Annexure P-5) and 17.11.2011 (Annexure P-6) despite the fact that the said issue no longer res integra and the case of petitioners is covered in terms of the judgment rendered by this Court in CWP-11427-2015, Sukhjad Singh Versus State of Punjab and CWP-23027-2016, Gurmit Kaur and others Versus State of Punjab and others. Further, praying for issuance of a writ in the nature of mandamus directing the respondents to regularize the service of petitioners with all consequential benefits w.e.f. 2011.

2. Learned counsel for the petitioners, inter alia, contends that the petitioners have been engaged by respondent No.1–Corporation on a contractual basis. All the petitioners have rendered between 14 to 24 years of uninterrupted service. It is submitted that the Government of Punjab, in the year 2011, formulated a policy dated 18.03.2011 (Annexure P-5), declaring and intimating that all those employees who were working against regular sanctioned posts on a contractual basis, having been selected pursuant to a due selection process and fulfilling the prescribed qualifications, would be regularized upon completion of three years of service. In furtherance of the aforesaid policy/instructions (Annexure P-5), another set of instructions dated 17.11.2021 (Annexure P-6) came to be issued, whereby the State of Punjab decided to extend the benefit of the regularization policy even to the employees working in Boards/Corporations/Commissions under the administrative control of the Government of Punjab, as is discernible from Annexure P-6. It is the contention of learned counsel that, in terms of the aforesaid policy instructions, the claim of the petitioners was squarely covered, inasmuch as they had completed more than 10 years of service as on the date of issuance of the said instructions. However, in a completely arbitrary and discriminatory manner, the respondents failed to regularize the services of the petitioners, whereas as many as 315 employees engaged by respondent No.1–Corporation on a contractual basis, who were identically and similarly situated, were regularized vide order dated 23.12.2011 (Annexure P-7). The petitioners, thus, have been singled out for hostile discrimination. Such action of the respondents is not only in violation of their own policy but is also hit by Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution of India. A perusal of the order dated 23.12.2011 (Annexure P-7) would reveal that even Computer Operators posted at the Head Office were regularized, whereas the petitioners, who are performing duties perennial in nature and rendering indispensable services in hospitals owned by the Government of Punjab, have not been regularized. The case of the petitioners is also squarely covered by the policies dated 18.03.2011 and 17.11.2021, as well as by the ratio of law culled out by this Hon’ble Court in CWP-11427-2015 titled Sukhjad Versus State of Punjab and others, decided on 19.12.2018 (Annexure P-8). The intra-court appeal preferred against the judgment rendered in Sukhjad’s case (supra) was dismissed by a Division Bench of this Court in LPA-516-2020 titled State of Punjab and others Versus Sukhjad Singh and others, decided on 28.03.2022 (Annexure P-9), whi