The Punjab and Haryana high court on Thursday directed Punjab government to put in abeyance meeting of departmental promotion committee (DPC) of irrigation department scheduled for June 12 to consider cases of junior engineers (JEs) for promotions as sub-divisional engineers (SDEs).The Punjab and Haryana high court on Thursday directed Punjab government to put in abeyance meeting of departmental promotion committee of irrigation department scheduled for June 12 to consider cases of junior engineers for promotions as sub-divisional engineers.The high court bench of justice Deepak Gupta acted on a plea from Chandan Garg, an electrical engineer, who had alleged that respondents have already exhausted the quota for civil and mechanical cadres and now they intend to fill the existing posts which are meant for electrical cadre.His counsel BS Mittal had argued that the petitions are pending adjudication on the issue of promotions criterion/quota to different categories of engineers in the department before the high court and a hearing took place on May 18, on which date it was deferred for July 24. However, in the meantime the government has fixed DPC meeting for June 12.It was further stated that the petitioner will suffer irreparable loss in case DPC is not stayed. The respondent department has already granted promotion to the other cadres of civil and mechanical beyond their respective quota, whereas, the electrical cadre has been confined to just 4 out of 12 quota posts of electrical engineer, the court was told.“In the meantime, the holding of the departmental promotion committee (DPC) meeting on 12.06.2026, shall be kept in abeyance till the next date of hearing,” the court said while deferring hearing for July 24.