' SH. RIAZ AHMAD, J.---This appeal through leave of the Court arises in the following circumstances:-- ' Respondent No,1 Syed Liaquat Ali Bukhari, Land Acquisition and Control Officer, Communication & Works Department, Government of Punjab, Lahore was promoted as Senior Land Control Officer in BPS-16 vide order dated 5-7-1989 by the competent Authority acting on the recommendation of Departmental Promotion Committee. The respondent thus assumed the charge of the post of the Senior Land Control Officer, Highway Department Multan on 1-8-1989. On 17-8-1989, Chief Engineer (South) Highway Department, Lahore, sent a letter to the Secretary, Government of the Punjab pointing out that with the promulgation of the Punjab Highway Department Land Acquisition and Control Officer Services Rules, 1989 with effect from 17-3-1988, the post of the Land Acquisition and Control Officer has been split up into two posts of BPS-16 each, namely, Land Acquisition Officer and Senior Land Control Officer. It may be pointed out that at that time the Land Acquisition and Control Wing Multan had one sanctioned post of Land Acquisition and Control Officer. According to the new recruitment rules, the Land Acquisition Officer was to be posted from the Board of Revenue, Punjab and the post of Senior Land Control Officer was to be filled in by promotion from the staff of the Land Control Officer. Furthermore, the Land Acquisition Officer was to be invested with the powers of the Collector under the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, while the Senior Land Control Officer had no such powers. At the time of the posting of the respondent as Senior Land Control Officer, it was contemplated that since he could not perform the duties of the Collector under the Land Acquisition Act, therefore, the work would stiffer. A suggestion was thus made that either a new post of Land Acquisition Officer be sanctioned or in the alternative powers of the Collector under the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 be conferred upon the respondent in his capacity as Senior Land Control Officer and till such time a decision is taken in this behalf, it was proposed that the Land Acquisition/Senior Land Control Officer, Highway. Department, Bahawalpur, be allowed to deal with the land acquisition cases of Highway Department, Multan. In consequence of this letter, a notification was issued under which designation was changed and the Land Acquisition and Control Officer (BPS-16) was re-designated as Land Acquisition/Senior Land Control Officer (BPS- 16) and the Land Control Officer (BPS-15) was re-designated as Land Control Officer. Similarly, Naib-Tehsildar in BPS-14 was be re-designated as Assistant Land Control Officer. Likewise the posts of Qanungo and Patwari were also re-designated. It may be stated here that at the time of the promotion of the respondent as Senior Land Control Officer, one Abdur Razzaq, who was holding the said post, had been repatriated to the Board of Revenue. At the time of re-designation of the post, the order of repatriation of said Abdur Razzaq, Land Acquisition/Senior Land Control Officer was held in abeyance till further orders with the result that the promotion of the respondent was also to be held in abeyance. Aggrieved by this order, the respondent invoked the Constitutional jurisdiction of the Lahore High Court by way of filing a petition under Article 199 of the Constitution, which was allowed vide orders impugned.
' The learned Single Judge of the Lahore High Court made the following observation:-- ".The impugned order is declared to be without lawful authority and of no legal effect. A direction in the nature of mandamus is issued to the respondents to act in accordance with law and treat the petitioner to be posted/promoted as Senior Land Control Officer with effect from 5-7-1989 and grant him all the emoluments with effect from 1-8-1989 i,e, the date of assumption of charge of the said post by the petitioner." ' aggrieved by this order, the Province of Punjab through Secretary, Communication & Works Department, Civil Secretariat, Lahore, sought leave to appeal and vide order dated 20-6-1995 leave was granted.
2. We have heard the learned counsel for the appellant and respondent No,1 at length. In sum and substance the learned Judge of the Lahore High Court has embarked upon interpreting various orders relating to the terms and conditions of service of the respondent, which course of action could not have been adopted by the High Court in view of the bar of jurisdiction contained in Article 212 of the Constitution. With the promulgation of the Punjab Service Tribunal Act, 1974, exclusive jurisdiction vested in the Tribunal to deal with cases relating to terms and conditions of a civil servant in the service of the Government of the Punjab. Obviously, through the impugned order, the terms and conditions of service like holding office from a particular date, grant of emoluments, order of abeyance of promotion etc. Have been dealt with, which in view of the Constitutional bar of jurisdiction could not have been determined by the High Court. In this view of the matter, we have no option, but to set aside the order impugned. Hence, the appeal is allowed leaving the parties to bear their own costs.