Chandigarh: The Punjab and Haryana high court has dismissed a petition filed by 13 sub-divisional engineers (SDEs) challenging the consideration of their senior colleagues for promotion to the post of executive engineer in Haryana’s development and panchayats department.The court held that engineering degrees obtained through distance education and subsequently validated by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) cannot bar future career progression.Justice Nidhi Gupta held that candidates who cleared the AICTE test in 2018 were entitled to the benefits of their validated degrees, including consideration for future promotions in accordance with law.The HC observed, “It is clear therefore that in passing the AICTE Test of 2018, the benefits drawn by the private respondents based on their degrees would not stand frozen in time. The Division Benches have clearly held that once the candidate has cleared the AICTE Test, there would be no fetter for the promotion.”The petitioners — Romil Singh and others — had sought directions restraining the Haryana govt from considering the candidature of private respondents for promotion to executive engineer, relying on Supreme Court judgements concerning engineering degrees obtained through distance education from deemed universities in Rajasthan during the 2001-2005 academic sessions.The petitioners’ counsel, senior advocate D S Patwalia, assisted by advocate Adityajit Singh Chadha, argued that the Supreme Court’s judgement in Orissa Lift Irrigation Corporation Limited versus Rabi Sankar Patro and its subsequent order in Ashok Kumar versus Depinder Singh Dhesi prohibited granting any additional service benefit, including promotion, to candidates whose degrees had been validated after they cleared the AICTE examination.Opposing the petition, counsel for the private respondents, senior advocate Ankur Mittal with advocate Kushaldeep Kaur, argued that the petitioners had misread the Supreme Court’s orders. They submitted that the respondents enrolled in the engineering courses during 2001-2005 and cleared the special validation test conducted by the AICTE in 2018 on their first attempt. Once validated, the degrees stood fully revived, entitling them to consideration for promotion in accordance with the applicable service rules.The HC, after hearing the matter, noted that the petitioners were junior to the private respondents and had not acquired the requisite eight years of experience as SDEs for consideration for promotion to executive engineer. It observed that the petitioners were, therefore, ineligible candidates at that stage.The Bench also noted that the private respondents had initially been appointed as Junior Engineers based on their diplomas and were subsequently promoted as SDEs based on their length of service, rather than their distance-mode engineering degrees.Holding that the private respondents sought consideration for prospective promotion based on validated degrees, not the restoration of an additional benefit, the HC deemed the petitioners’ argument fallacious.The HC further relied on its earlier Division Bench judgement in Rajpal and another versus State of Haryana and others, which held that once the qualifications required for a promotional post had been validated under the Supreme Court’s directions, there was no justification for refusing consideration for promotion.The HC observed that the legal position was that candidates whose degrees had been validated after passing the AICTE test would be eligible for entitlements available in accordance with law. It further noted that the AICTE had, through circulars dated June 9, 2020, Oct 20, 2023, and Jan 30, 2024, clarified that on passing the test, the degree would be validated in all respects from the date of award of the original degree.The HC also observed that if the Supreme Court had intended to impose a permanent bar on future career progression after validation of the degrees, it would have expressly said so. “In such a situation, it is not for us to add words where none are intended,” the order stated.“The purpose of passing the test was to bring persons such as the private respondents on a par with the petitioners, i.e. to equate the degrees of the private respondents obtained through distance education mode from deemed Universities to the engineering degrees of the petitioners obtained from recognised Universities,” the HC observed.“Keeping in view the above factual and legal position, the present Writ Petition stands dismissed,” the order read.
