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State Of Uttar Pradesh And Another v. Smt. Dayavati Khanna

State Of Uttar Pradesh And Another v. Smt. Dayavati Khanna

(High Court Of Judicature At Allahabad)

Special Appeal No. 243 of 1994 | 21-04-1994

S.S. Sodhi, J.There is a settled and well established rule of practice which by convention and long usage has almost hardened into a rule of law, namely, that relief asked for and available at the stage of final disposal of writ proceedings, is not, except for special reasons, to be granted as interim relief at the interlocutory stage. Blatant disregard of this rule is revealed here.

2. To give the relevant factual background, the writ Petitioners Dayavati Khanna while holding the post of Joint Director of Education was on March 20 1991 given additional charge of looking after the work also of the Additional Director of Education, which she has been doing ever since.

3. In the writ petition, the prayer of Dayavati Khanna was "pay salary to the Petitioner of the post of Additional Director of Education with effect from 20th March, 1991."

4. When the matter came up before the learned Single Judge for interim relief, by his order of April 29, 1993 the learned Single Judge directed that Dayvati Khanna be paid salary as Additional Director with effect from March 20, 1991 namely, the main relief in the writ petition. Not only this, the learned Single Judge went further and directed the issuance of a regular appointment order to Dayavati Khanna for the post of Additional Director. It deserves to be pointed out here that there was no such prayer in the writ petition nor was it the case of Dayavati khanna that she had been regularly appointed to the post of Additional Director or was by seniority or selection entitled to be appointed as such.

5. When the matter next came up before the learned single judge on October 13, 1993 the order shows that a direction was issued for the payment of salary as Additional Director to Dayavati khanna.

6. There is then the order January 20 ,1994 whereby the learned single Judge directed compliance with has earlier order of April 29, 1993 namely payment of salary as additional Director to Dayavati khanna with effect from 20th march,1991 This order was directed to be complied with within two weeks.

7. In dealing with this matter, it would be relevant to refer here to the Judgment of the Division Bench in committee of Management v. Sushil Kumar sharma 1993 (2) UP LB EC 1263 , wherein a with petition seeking the issue of an appointment letter to the post of Lecturer and for payment of salary for that post with effect from the date specified therein, the learned Single Judge had, while disposing of stay application passed an order granting precisely these two reliefs. Following the judgment of the supreme court in U.P. Junior Doctors Action Committee and Others Vs. Dr. B. Sheetal Nandwani and Others, , it was held "it is a well known rule of practice and procedure that at interlocutory stage a relief which is asked for and is available at the disposal of the matters not granted unless there is any special reason to be indicated in clear term."

8. Before proceeding further it deserves mention that counsel for Dayavati khanna was unable to point to any special reason to justify Dayavati Khanna being granted at the interlocutory stage, the Maine relief sought in the writ petition and in fact even more the issuance of an appointment letter to her for the post of Additional Director, a relief as mentioned earlier not even asked for in the writ petition.

9. Faced with this situation Mr. L.P. Naithani, counsel for the Dayavati Khanna, sought to put-forth the wholly untenable contention that no special appeal lay against the impugned order the argument being that a Special appeal would be competent only from an order passed in a writ petition which is required to be heard by a single judge but not when an order is passed by a single judge in a writ petition cognizable by a Division Bench. In other word, in a writ petition cognizable by a Division Bench no special appeal lies against an order passed by a single judge while dealing with interim matters Counsel could, however, point no rule or judicial precedent to support this contention which on the face of it, has no reason or principle to support it.

10. As is well known, it is in the exercise of powers vested in the Chief Justice that the single judges have been conferred jurisdiction to deal with matters pertaining to interim reilef, in writ petitions, congnizable by a Division Bench. while dealing with such a matter the single judge does not function as a delegatee of the Division Bench nor there is any warrant for deeming an interim order passed by the single judge in a matter cognizable by the Division Bench, as being that of the Division bench so as to bear a special appeal against it.

11. Further, there is nothing in the language of Rule 5 of chapter VIII of the Allahabad High court Rule 1952 to leand itself to any such interpretation, namely, barring an appeal form an order passed by the single judge in such matters, rather a reading of it would show that an appeal against the order of the single judge is no way barred. There is thus no ground to hold that the present special appeal was not competent

12. Keeping in view the matter as has been discussed there can be no escape from the conclusion that the learned single judge clearly fell in error in granting to Dayavati khanna the relief of issuance of an appointment order for the post of Additional Director and for the payment to her of salary as such the impugned orders of the learned single, Judge, in this behalf, are consequently, hereby set-aside and this special appeal is thus accepted.

13. As we are informed that Dayvati khanna is likely to retire from service this year we direct that her writ petition be listed for final hearing within a year.

Advocate List
For Petitioner
  • L.P. Naithani
For Respondent
  • ;
Bench
  • HON'BLE JUSTICE S.S. SODHI, J
  • HON'BLE JUSTICE R.A. SHARMA, J
Eq Citations
  • 1994 AWC 1137 ALL
  • LQ/AllHC/1994/373
Head Note