UNION OF INDIA Vs. S R DHARESHWAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) All these appeals arise out of orders made on different Writ Petitions in the High Court of Mysore. The first group of appeals is by the Union of India while the State of Mysore is the appellant in the second group. The High Court delivered one common judgment applicable to the writ petitions out of which these appeals arise as also a number of other writ petitions which came up in appeal to this Court separately.

(2.) The writ petitions before the High Court out of which the present appeals arise were all filled by officers of the State of Mysore in different departments after the reorganisation of States in 1956 praying for the quashing of final inter-State seniority lists prepared by or with the approval of the Government of India and direction for preparation of seniority lists on the basis mentioned. The departments concerned were many including the Agricultural Department and the Forest Department. The petitioning officers stood allotted to the new State of Mysore under Section 115 of the States Reorganisation Act of 1956, hereinafter referred to as the 'Act'. As is well known, the reorganisation of the States resulted, inter alia, in the creation of the new State of Mysore which included the whole of the erstwhile States of Mysore and Coorg and parts of the former States of Bombay Hyderabad and Madras. Under Section 115 (1) of the Act officers serving in the erstwhile States of Mysore and Coorg were deemed to have been allotted to the new State of Mysore. Some of the officers who were serving in the former States of Bombay, Hyderabad and Madras were similarly allotted to this new State. As a result of these changes, it became necessary for the Central Government to divide the services of the former States of Bombay Hyderabad and Madras and allot some of the service personnel to the new State of Mysore. The personnel so allotted had different conditions of service in their parent States. Their designations were different, their duties were not identical and their pay scales also varied considerably. Naturally the integration of personnel drawn from the different States and the fixing of their seniority became a matter of considerable difficulty and complication. Section 115 of the Act was an attempt to resolve these diffculties according to the procedure therein prescribed. Sub-sections (1) to (4) of Section 115 deal with the question of allotment of officers from one State to another and their continuance in service provisionally in one State until transferred to another State till their final allotment. To this and sub-sections (2) and (3) of Section 115 confer powers on the Central Government to divide the services of an existing State and allot some of the officers to the successor States. Sub-section (5) provides as follows:

(3.) The conclusions of the High Court were as follows:-