LAHORE: The Punjab Subordinate Judiciary Service Tribunal has dismissed a service appeal of a female civil judge who sought grace marks in the departmental examination after exhausting all four attempts.

Anam Haseeb was appointed civil judge-cum-judicial magistrate (BS-17) on Aug 20, 2015 on probation for a period of two years. She duly joined the post and for her confirmation she was obli-gated to pass departmental examination, which could be done in a maximum of four consecutive attempts.

However, she was unsuccessful in all four attempts and, in result, was discharged from service under section 5(3) (a) of the Punjab Civil Servants Act, 1974.

She moved a request for grant of fifth chance through a representation, which was considered and declined by the competent authority on Aug 7, 2019. Her review petition was also turned down.

In her appeal heard by the subordinate judiciary service tribunal, a counsel for the appellant argued that the grace marks were granted to similarly placed persons and that in the circumstances she was also entitled to be allowed grace marks under the relevant rules.

He said the appellant was illegally discriminated against by the authorities.

The tribunal comprising three judgesof the Lahore High Court observed that an appeal for fifth chance has already been dismissed by it through a 2021 judgment and a challenge by the appellant is pending with the Supreme Court.

Therefore, the tribunal may not discuss the point of fif th chance any further, said the judgement authored by Justice Rasaal Hassan Syed.

A counsel for the LHC registrar opposed the stance of the appellant regarding the grace marks, saying the representation for such marks was filed by the appellant belatedly and was correctly declined and that the appeal was time barred, which was liable to be dismissed.

In its judgement, the tribunal noted that the appellant made four attempts to pass the departmental examination and on exhaustion of the maximum number of permissible chances she was dis-charged from service.

By her representation she claimed that she should be granted grace marks in her second and third attempts on the basis that her batch mates were given such marks at the time.

However, her stance was declined and a representation was dismissed.

The tribunal noted that the rules permitted five per cent marks as grace marks in any paper in any examination. However, the appellant had failed in multiple papers in the two departmental examinations.

The counsel for the registrar stated that candidates are eligible for grace marks if they fail in one paper only.

The tribunal dismissed the appeal on account of being filed with a delay and merits as well.

Justice sajid Mehmood Sethi is the chairman of the tribunal with Justice Abid Hussain Chattha as its third member.