L.A is assisted by one Dy. Secy./Law, Two Under Secy./Legal (One Vacant), 4 Law Officer Gr.-I (All Vacant)and 10 Law Officers Gr.-II (4 Vacant)for dealing with cases.

(A)   Organization Set-up & Functions of Legal Section

Right from the inception of the Board, a Legal Section is attached with the Board Secretariat under the overall control of Director HR, PSPCL. Legal Section consists of the following legally qualified staff :-

• Law Officer Gr. II (at lowest rank) 10 posts
• Law Officer Gr. I (Promotional post) 4 posts
• Under Secy./Legal (Promotion from L.O Gr.-1) Two post
• Dy. Secretary/Law (Promotional post) one post
• Legal Advisor (Promotion post for Dy. Secy./Law

The Legal Section is mainly entrusted with the duties & functions to deal with the legal issues in different nature of cases and render opinions to all the H.O organization and field offices throughout Punjab. Few matters which are generally dealt with by the Legal Section are enumerated as under:-

• To render legal advice and interpret statutes of Commercial Laws, Industrial Laws, Electricity Laws, & Criminal Law and all sorts of cases.
• To deal Land acquisition cases
• To render advice in Court case before the Civil Courts in each Distt. Head Quarters and Tehsil Head Quarters, court of Compensation Commissioner & Motor Accident Tribunal, Labour Court cases, Sale Tax Authorities, Consumer Forum case, Punjab Human Rights cases etc. including personal attendance.
• To render advice in Writs and appeals and other cases in the High Court and Supreme Court of India.
• To render advice in Arbitration cases involving claims of Lac of Rupees.
• To hold Conferences with counsel, all High Court and Supreme Court of India cases in important cases.
• To vet contract agreements, Lease deeds, Bonds, Warranty deeds, Bank Guarantees, Contract Guarantees, Performance Guarantees and other legal instruments received from various section of Secretariat and Chief Executive Officers.
• Legal advice in large number of accident cases involving Board’s employees and private persons as well as animals.
• To render advice on reference received from the establishment sections, Sales Section and other section of the Board.
• To render advice in large number of purchases cases at their different stages including risk purchase and ultimately reference to Arbitration cases for recovery of risk purchase amount.
• Criminal proceedings against theft of stores and theft of energy cases.
• To scrutinize and comment upon the reports of vigilance unit when referred to Legal Section.
• Notices under Section-80 CPC and other statutes served upon the Board.
• Drafting legal documents.
• Vetting of notices to be served by the Board on other parties under various Acts.
• Empanelment of advocates to conduct the Board’s case in different courts.

(B)   Achievements

With the help of SE/IT PSPCL Patiala legal section is succeeded in uploading all cases of PSPCL available on the web site of PSPCL, so that an easy and appropriate information may be taken regarding the status of cases. Accordingly, at present about 11921 court cases are pending in Hon’ble Apex Court , High Court, National Consumer Redressal Commission, New Delhi, State Consumer Redressal Commission, Chandigarh and District Consumer Forum of every District etc. Out of which 4049 Appeals are pending, 2293 are on Arguments Stage, 2242 are on Evidence Stage and 458 cases have been decided by the courts.

(C)   Although it is the duty of the concerned organization to follow up the cases in the courts but in few cases of important nature, the Legal Section is also directly associated in pursuing the cases such as :-

• Suit No. 2 State of Himachal Pardesh Vs State of Punjab & others (Inter State Dispute)
• CWP No. 18006/02-Jit Singh & others Vs PSEB (Extra remuneration for work on Saturday /Sunday case) (Decided in favour of the Board now in Review High Court has remanded back the matter to Labour Court)
• Hakam Singh & others Vs PSEB (Extra remuneration for work on Saturday /Sunday case) (Decided in favour of the Boardnow in Review High Court has remanded back the matter to Labour Court)
• Paramjit Sharma & others Vs PSEB (Extra remuneration for work on Saturday /Sunday case) (Decided in favour of the Boardnow in Review High Court has remanded back the matter to Labour Court).
• SLP No. 35043 of 2009 in LPA No. 605 of 2009 in CWP No. 8451/2007 titled as M/S Antarctic Industries C44/47, Focal Point, Ludhiana & others 20 cases in which 17% rate of surcharge is in issue.

These CWP’s and LPA’s are decided in favour of PSPCL and the petitioners have filed SLP’s which are pending before Supreme Court for decisions these cases are followed by Legal Section.

 

Under Secy./Legal,
Cum-Nodal Officer,
PSEB, Patiala.