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Punjab rules cannot be simply extended to Chandigarh, says HC
Chandigarh is a ‘successor state’, only the Union ministry of home affairs is its ‘appropriate government’ and can make its rules, says court
In a significant judgment, the Punjab and Haryana high court has held that by virtue of the Punjab Reorganisation Act, 1966, Chandigarh is a “successor state”, and as such, rules framed in Punjab cannot be simply extended to Chandigarh.
For Chandigarh, the Union ministry of home affairs (MHA) is to act as the “appropriate government”. No other ministry or department is authorised to interfere with its affairs, said the bench of justice Rajbir Sehrawat, adding that all rules for Chandigarh, at least about state subjects, were to be made by MHA.
The high court judgment came on a 2003 plea from some teachers who had back then retired from Punjab Engineering College (PEC) at the age of 58 and had demanded that their retirement age be treated as 60, as announced by Punjab whose rules are adopted by Chandigarh.
However, disagreeing with their contention, the court said the employees of Chandigarh were to be governed by the rules applicable by UT administration back then, as per which retirement age was 58. To be clear, as of April 2022, the retirement age for PEC faculty is 65.
‘UTs territorial constituents of Centre’
The court observed that unless the context of governance otherwise required, the UTs were territorial constituents of Centre on par with states. Their territorial governance was to be carried out through the mechanism and machinery on par with that of states, it added.
“The Chandigarh administration cannot, anymore, extend to Chandigarh any Punjab ‘rules’ or ‘regulations’ or ‘instructions’ or ‘orders’,” it said adding, that the Centre may frame rules and regulations on the lines of Punjab rules, yet, by its rule-making power, it cannot bring to Chandigarh any Punjab rules, merely by prescribing that the rules for Chandigarh will be the same as in the state of Punjab.
The court held being a “successor state”, where existing laws were kept operational, the service conditions of the employees allocated to Chandigarh were governed by the Punjab Civil Service Rules. But it could frame its own rules. Hence, the Chandigarh Employee Rules were notified in 1992 and subsequently in 2022.
Directions to AICTE, UGC also
The court also held that All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) or the University Grants Commission (UGC) had no power to make regulations prescribing the service conditions for employees of institutions established or controlled or financed by the state government.
It directed both to include a separate and specific clause in their regulations, which were optional for the state government with respect to the service conditions of the employees.
