1984 PLP (C (PLC)

ABDUL HAMID CHAUDHRY (MEMBER).‑Messrs Ch. Fateh Muhammad, Ch. Taj Muhammad, Hussain Ali and Ch. Muhammad Siddique, S. V. Teachers of Lahore District, Education Department have made this appeal under section 4 of the Punjab Service Tribunals Act, 1974, wherein they have impleaded the District Education Officer, Lahore, the Director of Public Instructions (Schools), Punjab, Lahore and the Secretary to Government of the Punjab, Finance Department, Lahore as respondents.

2. By virtue of this appeal, the appellants have prayed that the impugned order dated 2nd July, 1983 and 1st August, 1983 be set aside and the orders dated 8th August, 1982 be restored.

3. Brief facts of the case are that the appellants joined service as S. V, Teachers in the High Schools of the former District Councils, Lahore. Those schools were provincialised w. e. f. 1st July, 1970 and the appellants' services were also provincialised from the same date. The Punjab Government issued order dated 8th August, 1982 wherein selection Grade in N. P. S. 11 were sanctioned equal to 30 per cent of all the regular teaching posts in N. P. S. 8 and the following formula was prescribed for the award of the said selection grade to the incumbents of the various categories of the posts :‑ "(2) The Selection grade for each sub‑category of posts will be calculated separately. For example the posts of P. T. C. and Music Teachers N. P. S.

6. The Selection Grade posts will be calculated separately for P. T. C. and for Music Teachers. Similarly the posts of E. S. T. and S. V. Teachers are in N. P. S. 8 and their selection grade will be calculated separately for E. S. T. and for S. V. Teachers." In pursuance of the above policy Selection Grade was awarded to the appellants by order dated 28th February, 1983 w. e. f. 1st July, 1982 (Annexure 'B'). It has been submitted in the grounds of appeal that the said order was implemented and appellants were paid arrears of pay w. e. f. 1st July, 1982 till 1983. Subsequently, however, D. P. I., Punjab issued order dated 2nd July, 1983 (Annexure 'C') in which decision of the Finance Department was conveyed that they had no objection to the grant of selection grade on the basis of combined seniority. Accordingly on the basis of that revised decision impugned order dated 1st August, 1983 was issued by the respondent No. I whereby various orders including order, dated 28th February, 1983 in favour of the present appellants, grant ing them selection grade from 1st July, 1982, were withdrawn. Hence this appeal.

4. We have heard the parties. It has been argued by the learned counsel for the appellant that the earlier order dated 28th February, 1983 was duly implemented and acted upon and as such the respondents were not left with any locus poenitentiae to withdraw those orders and to take away the vested rights of pay from the appellants previous given to them. He has relied upon previous decisions in two cases decided by this Tribunal in cases of selection grade of teachers. One of them namely Nazar Hussain v. District Education Officer, Lahore (1981 P L C (C. S.) 835), and the other is Rashid Ahmad v. Deputy Director (Schools), Rawalpindi and others, C. No. 535/1945 of 1982, decided on 25th May, 1983. The present case is on all fours with the aforesaid two cases and as such these decisions are fully applicable in the present case. 1n both those cases the Tribunal has taken the view that once an order is duly implemented, acted upon and valuable right of salary and appointment accrued in favour of the civil servants then it is not within powers of the Government to rescind or withdraw such orders.

5. On the other hand, the learned District Attorney could not successfully rebut the above arguments of the learned counsel for the appellant.

6. We have given our anxious thought to the arguments of the parties and have also gone through the judgments of this Tribunal so relied upon by the learned counsel for the appellant and have also consi dered the facts of this case. We are of the considered opinion that the case is identical with the above‑noted two cases of the Teachers of the Punjab Education Department. The selection grade to the present appel lants were granted on a formula criterion as decided by the Government, hence they were awarded selection grade on the criterion laid down by the Government in the year 1982. If there was some contrary decision by the Government for grant of selection grade on the basis of the combined seniority, then such a decision cannot take away vested rights of appellants which were given to them under valid decision of the Government and orders of the competent authority.

7. The upshot of the above analysis of the case is that the appeal of the appellants is accepted, impugned orders, dated 2nd July, 1983 and 1st August, 1983 are set aside and order dated 28th February, 1983 of respondent No. 1 is restored. There will be no order as to costs. M. I. Appeal accepted.