SURAT SINGH vs STATE OF PUNJAB — C.A. No. 6336 - 6337/2000

Summary: The Supreme Court allowed the appeals by Surat Singh, who had been reverted from Junior Engineer to Pump Operator in 1999. Singh, originally appointed as a Pump Operator in 1974, acquired a Mechanical Engineering diploma and was appointed ad hoc as Junior Engineer in 1989. The High Court had dismissed his writ petition challenging the reversion based on a 1998 judgment regarding seniority of direct recruits that he was not made party to. However, the State of Punjab subsequently issued office orders regularizing Singh's services as Junior Engineer (Mechanical) with retrospective effect from October 17, 1989, and promoting him to Assistant Engineer with Class-II Gazetted Officer status effective October 21, 1997. Given this changed position, the Supreme Court held the High Court judgment no longer survivable and disposed of the appeals accordingly on January 11, 2007. This case analysis is maintained by casestatus.in based on publicly available court records.