K V RAJLAKSHMIAH SETTY Vs. STATE OF MYSORE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These are two appeals from a common judgment and order of the High Court of Mysore covering a number of Writ Petitions filed in that Court on special leave granted by this Court.

(2.) The appellants are two out of a total number of 43 persons who filed separate petitions under Art. 226 of the Constitution before the Mysore High Court on October, l, 1964. The main prayer in all the petitions was that a writ of mandamus should be issued commanding the State of Mysore to promote each petitioner to the cadre of Assistant Engineers from the date on which the petitioner was placed in charge of a sub-division with all consequential benefits. To put in short, the demand of the petitioners was that they should all receive benefits which others promoted before and after them had received. According to the petitions, some of these persons had received such benefits before the petitioners and some had been accorded similar advantages although they were promoted as Assistant Engineers long after the petitioners, but the State of Mysore had, without any reason, declined to give similar benefits to the petitioners.

(3.) The facts as they emerge from the affidavits and the documents referred to therein are as follows. The State of Mysore, before the Reorganisation of States Act l956, used to employ engineering graduates for a long time past designating them as surveyors. The State had another cadre of engineers know as Assistant Engineers. Surveyors who were posted as officers in Charge of sub-divisions were from time to time promoted to the cadre of Assistant Engineers. Between March 24, 1944 and December 15, 1944, a batch of 27 surveyors were placed in charge of different subdivisions in the State. This bewitch was promoted to the cadre of Assistant Engineers with effect from May 21, 1945. Another batch of officers who were placed in charge of sub-divisions between May 11, 1945 and January 2, l946 were similarly promoted with effect from January 17, 1947. By a notification dated May 17, 1950 the Government of Mysore decided to give all these 41 persons the benefit of promotion as Assistant Engineers with effect from the dates of occurrence of vacancies according to seniority. They were further to have the benefit of the grant of initial pay with weightage from October 1, 1948 in the revised scale of pay. The petitioners comprising a batch of 63 surveyors were placed in charge of sub-divisions on diverse dates between December 28, 1945 and November 13, 1949. With regard to most of these the Chief Engineer of the State recommended to the Government of Mysore that they should be promoted as Assistant Engineers with retrospective effect from the dates they were placed in charge of subdivisions. By a letter dated December 5, 1948 addressed by the Secretary to the Government of Mysore to the Chief Engineer, the latter was requested to post most of this batch of surveyors including one Siddaveerappa in charge of sub-divisions as shown in the accompanying statement pending issue of orders on the question of filling up vacancies existing in the Assistant Engineers' cadre. By notification dated December 21, 1949 these 63 persons were directed to be promoted as temporary Assistant Engineers in the Public Works Department against existing vacancies. On the same date, the Chief Engineer was requested to forward to Govermnent an allocation statement showing the vacancies against which the newly promoted Assistant Engineers were counted, the dates from which the posts were vacant and the dates on which they had been in charge of subdivisions. On March 7, 1950 the Chief Engineer by his communication No. l839-40 Est. supplied particulars to Government of the dates on which each of these 63 persons had assumed charge of a sub-division. On September 28, 1953, the Chief Engineer addressed D. O. letters to all the 63 Assistant Engineers for particulars of dates on which each of them had taken such charge. This was complied with by all the addressees. By a letter dated December 13, 1956, the Chief Engineer drew the attention of the State Government to the fact that these 63 persons had been promoted in respect of vacancies which had existed long prior to December 21, 1949 (the date of notification mentioned above) and that some of the vacancies had existed for over four year prior to that date. According to the Chief Engineer, had these persons been promoted as and when vacancies occurred, they would not only have been in receipt of a much higher pay in their progressive grade but also would have been senior to many of the Assistant Engineers who had come in from the newly merged areas of Hyderabad, Bombay and Madras. The Chief Engineer also commented that in addition to this double disadvantage to which these persons had been exposed, they were also going to lose all chances of promotion to the higher ranks because the Assistant Engineers from the merged areas were all younger to then in age. The attention of the Government was drawn to the promotion of a previous batch of 41 supervisors already mentioned. The letter ended with a recommendation that a similar consideration should he extended to these 63 persons and their ranks in the common civil list be fixed with reference to the date of occurrence of the vacancies. It appears that the Chief Engineer pursued this subject from time to time making his recommendation about these persons By letter dated July 10, 1957 the Chief Engineer pointed out that as the Inter-State seniority list of Assistant Engineers was soon to be finalised and the service in the cadre was to be the criterion for fixing relative ranks, it was right that these 63 persons should be reckoned as promoted from the dates of occurrence of the vacancies and their relative ranks in the integrated seniority list be fixed accordingly. Another letter on the subject was addressed by the Chief Engineer to the State Government on December 98, 1957. With regard to the recommendation already made by him, the Chief Engineer enclosed a modified Inter State seniority list from serial numbers 28 to 92 to show that only a few Deputy Engineers of Bombay who were far junior in age and service would be ranked below these 63 persons of the erstwhile Mysore State and this would not affect these men from Bombay inasmuch as the 63 Mysore Engineers were very much older and would not bar the prospects of promotion of the juniors.