2026:HHC:25440 IN THE HIGH COURT OF HIMACHAL PRADESH SHIMLA CWP No. 256 of 2026. Decided on : 30 th June , 2026. Rajender Kumar & Ors. ...Petitioners. Versus State of H.P. & Ors. ....Respondents. Coram: The Hon’ble Mr. Justice Ajay Mohan Goel, Judge. Whether approved for reporting?1 For the Petitioners: Mr. Chaman Lal, Advocate. For the respondents: Mr. Rahul Thakur, Dy. A.G. Ajay Mohan Goel, Judge (Oral). By way of this writ petition, the petitioners have, inter alia, prayed for the following reliefs:- “(i) Than an appropriate writ, order or directions may kindly be issued and the Notification dated 08.05.2025, Annexure P-5 (colly), may kindly be quashed/modified being arbitrary malafide and illegal, by directing the respondents to convene DPC from the year 2018 to 2023 and make promotion of the petitioners on actual basis from the date when the petitioners assumed the charge of the posts of Principals, as has been done in similar situated persons, as 1 Whether reporters of the local papers may be allowed to see the judgment? 2  2026:HHC:25440 is evident from Annexures P-2 & P-2/T, with all consequential benefits of pay scale, increments, arrears, seniority and the arrears may be ordered to be granted along with interest @ 9% p.a., in the interest of law and justice. (ii) That writ in the nature of mandamus or an appropriate writ, order or directions may kindly be issued to the respondents to deemed the Petitioner promoted on regular basis as Principal with all the actual monetary benefits and the pay scale of the post of Principal (school cadre) from the date when he was given the charge of the post of Principal (school cadre) alongwith interest @ 9% p.a. till the date of its actual realization.” 2. The petitioners contends that in terms of Annexure P- 5, dated 08.05.2025, when they were promoted on regular basis against the post of Principals (School Cadre), said promotion was conferred with immediate effect as from the date of the notification and on notional basis from the date the petitioners assumed the charge of the post of Principals on placement basis. The grievance of the petitioners is that they have been discriminated by the Department, as in other cases, incumbents similarly situated as the petitioners, were promoted on regular 3  2026:HHC:25440 basis from the date they assumed the charge of the post of Principals on placement basis. 3. Learned counsel for the petitioners submitted that the reliefs prayed for the petitioners are otherwise squarely covered by the judgment passed by this Court in CWP No. 9321 of 2025, titled Vijay Parmar and others Vs. State of Himachal Pradesh, decided on 06.04.2026, and the petition be disposed of with the direction that the judgment passed therein shall mutatis mutandis be construed to have been passed in the present petition also. 4. Though the similarity in the issue decided by this Court in Vijay Parmar and others Vs. State of Himachal Pradesh (supra) and the grievance of the petitioners could not be disputed by the learned Additional Advocate General, but he submitted that the order that may be passed by this Court be subject to the legal rights of the respondents to agitate the same. Ordered accordingly. 5. This petition is disposed of by directing that the directions passed in Vijay Parmar and others Vs. State of Himachal 4  2026:HHC:25440 Pradesh (supra), shall be construed to have been passed in the present case also mutatis mutandis. It is held that the act of the respondents-State of conferring the promotion to the petitioners in terms of Annexure P-5, dated 08.05.2025 on regular basis with immediate effect and on notional basis from the date they assumed the charge of the post of Principals on placement basis is bad and it is directed that the petitioners shall be conferred the benefit of regularization as was conferred to their counter-parts from the date of assuming the charge of the post i.e. from the actual date of the petitioners joining as Principals on placement basis with all consequential benefits. 6. Pending miscellaneous application(s), if any, also stand disposed of accordingly. (Ajay Mohan Goel) Judge 30th June, 2026. (jai)