2007 PLP (C (PLC(CS))

KHALIL-UR-REHMAN RAMDAY, J.

This appeal through leave of this Court is directed against an order of the Lahore High Court dated 9-7-1997 passed in Intra-Court Appeal No.388 of 1997 through which the said Intra-Court Appeal was dismissed whereby another impugned order of the Lahore High Court dated 3-3-1997 passed in Writ Petition No.21058 of 1996 was affirmed.

2. The appellant was appointed as a Drug Inspector under the Drugs Act of 1967 on 17-6-1990. His said appointment was extended from time to time by the Chief Minister of the Province of Punjab for about six years whereafter his services were terminated. In the meantime, he had also approached the Punjab Public Service Commission seeking his appointment as a Drug Inspector in the prescribed manner. On account of a large number of applications received by the said Commission for the said post, the Commission undertook an exercise to short-list the applicants as a consequence whereof the appellant was not even called for the test on account of his poor merit.

3. He then petitioned in the Lahore High Court through the above mentioned Writ Petition No.21058 of 1996 praying for a declaration that he was a regularly appointed Drug Inspector; that the appellant was never an ad hoc appointee and that the letter terminating the ad hoc appointment of the appellant was illegal. It had been prayed in the alternative that the rejection of his candidature by the Public Service Commission was without lawful authority.

4. As has been noticed above, this writ petition was dismissed by a learned Single Judge of the Lahore High Court on 3-3-1997 essentially on the ground that it was an admitted position that before the appellant's appointment as a Drug Inspector in the year 1990, the said post had never been advertised nor had the appellant been tested for his appointment to the said post by the competent authority and his appointment having been extended from time to time was sufficient to establish that he was never a regularly appointed Drug Inspector suggesting that the appellant had entered the service in an irregular manner through a back door. This order of the Lahore High Court dated 3-3-1997 proceeded also on the premises that the Public Service Commission was not bound to call the appellant for the requisite test if candidates, superior to him in merit, were available for the said post. It had, however, been observed by the learned Judge in Chamber that if any candidate possessing a lower merit was called by the Public Service Commission for the said test, then the appellant would have a right to agitate against same. Similar were the reasons which had weighed with the learned Appellate Bench of the Lahore High Court for dismissal of the Intra-Court Appeal.

5. The appellant has been heard in person. He was unable to show that his appointment made in the year 1990 had been made in the prescribed manner or that he was a regularly appointed officer. He could also not show that any person inferior to him in merit had been invited by the Public Service Commission to compete for the post in question.

6. In this view of the matter, when the appellant was not possessed of any right to continue in service and when he was also not possessed of any right to be called for a test by the Commission, we find no merit in this appeal which is accordingly dismissed with no order as to costs. M.H./A-25/SC Petition dismissed.