Dismissed PCS Officers given four weeks to file objections

Chandigarh, Sep 26 (UNI) The Punjab and Haryana High Court today granted four weeks time to all those candidates, who had been selected for the Punjab civil service executive branch and the PCS Judicial during the tenure of former Punjab Public Service Commission Chairman Ravinder Pal Singh Sidhu, to file their objections, if any, against the orders of the Punjab Government in terminating their services.

The full bench of the High Court comprising Chief Justice Vijender Jain, Justices M M Kumar and Rajesh Bindal ordered this after the resumed hearing in the matter raised through a bunch of writ petitions.

The court has taken on record various objections which have been filed so far, while allowing four-week time to allow those who could not do so earlier.

The case which has been remanded back to the High Court by the Supreme Court, saw constitution of two separate committees of the High Court headed by Justices Jagdish Singh Khehar and K S Gareaal to reconsider the cases of the dismissed PCS officers.

The High Court had upheld on July 7, 2003 the removal of the PCS officers selected during Sidhu's tenure, affirming the selection was vitiated. However, this verdict was set aside by the Supreme Court in 2006 in the case titled '' Inderjit Singh Kahlon versus state of Punjab'', observing termination cannot be sustained.

The apex court, while remanding the case back to the High Court, had called for segregating the tainted and non-tainted selection of candidates to be looked into by the two separate committees headed by High Court judges.

The committees gave reports on February 8, 2007 and observed that of the total 93 PCS executive branch officers, only 19 were considered to be tainted while of the 63 PCS allied candidates selected, only eight were found to be tainted, according to the details contained in the objection filed by Balwinder Singh, a selected candidate for the allied services, who was assistant registrar co-operative societies at the time of termination.

The candidates have prayed to direct the Punjab Government to pass fresh orders on the basis of the report of the judges committees submitted on February 8, 2007 and consider the cases in the context of apex court orders.

UNI