STATE OF PUNJAB vs DEV RAJ .

The Supreme Court held that the Punjab and Haryana High Court erred in dismissing the Letters Patent Appeal regarding the absorption of teachers and laboratory assistants in a school taken over by the State Government. The Court emphasized that only staff members present at the time of the government's decision to take over the school on 28.6.1983 were eligible for absorption, as per the conditions laid out in the government order and subsequent corrigendum. The Court ruled that the respondents, who were appointed after this date, could not claim absorption in government service, thereby upholding the High Court's dismissal of the appeal.