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Judgment
Jyotsna Rewal Dua, J
The writ petition has been filed for the grant of following substantive relief:
“(a) To issue a writ of mandamus, appropriate writ, order or direction in nature thereof, directing the respondent department to extend service of the petitioners by one years with immediate effect or retrospectively from the day next to their superannuation with all consequential benefits for all purposes and intents alongwith arrears and interest thereon @ 18%.”
It is not in dispute that the respondents themselves have issued notification dated 24.09.2015, (Annexure P-4), wherein, inter-alia, it has been provided as under:-
“In suppression of the previous Notifications/ Orders the Hon’ble Governor of the Himachal Pradesh is pleased to order that the National Awardee Teachers shall be entitled for two years extension in service as well as one additional increment in salary and the State Awardee Teachers shall be entitled for one year extension in service.”
The only ground taken by the respondents to deny the benefit of aforesaid notification is that the Policy for granting extension to State/National awardee teachers is under consideration for reviewing the same. The stand of the respondents is totally untenable as even in case the respondents have to take a decision to review the Policy, obviously, such Policy can be made operative only prospectively and not retrospectively. That apart, I find that this is a case of invidious discrimination where the persons similarly situated to the petitioners have already been granted extension of service of one year.
Accordingly, the present writ petition is allowed. The respondents are directed to grant extension to the petitioners in terms of the notification dated 24.09.2015
(supra) within a period of one week from today. Ordered accordingly.
The writ petition stands disposed of in the above terms, so also the pending miscellaneous application(s), if any.