Appointment of murder convict as teacher; notice to Punjab

Chandigarh, Dec 17 (UNI) Can a person convicted of murder be appointed to a post during the pendency of his appeal ? Since such an appointment has been made by Zila Parishad, Hoshiarpur, the widow of the person murdered has approached the Punjab and Haryana High Court seeking directions to quash the appointment.

What has irked the petitioner, Mrs Kulwant Kaur, widow of Santokh Singh of village Mangarh in district Hoshiarpur, is the go-ahead signal given by district attorney and his junior, especially in the face of a High Court order dismissing plea for suspending the conviction of accused Amandeep Singh who is also from the same village. She has now moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court seeking to quash appointment orders.

It has been pointed by the petitioner that her husband had been murdered on March 3,1999 and respondent Amandeep Singh was one of the five accused who faced trial and were handed down life imprisonment and a fine of Rs 5000. The respondent plea for suspending the sentence was allowed, but the one against conviction was dismissed by the High Court on July 31 last year.

However, Amandeep Singh who is a convict under section 302 IPC was appointed as ETT by Zila Parishad after the legal opinion given by district attorney's office approved this.

The petitioner pointed out that the district attorney and his subordinate did not take the facts into account as the respondent could not be appointed without suspension of sentence.

After preliminary hearing, the division bench of Justices Jagdish Singh Khehar and Sham Sunder today issued notices for January 8, 2008 to Punjab education secretary, chief executive officer(CEO), Zila Parishad, Hoshiarpur, Mr U S Gill, district attorney, Hoshiarpur, Bihari Lal additional deputy district attorney, Hoshiarpur and Amandeep Singh.

UNI