S K GHOSH Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) S. K. Ghosh and A. M.. Narula, the two petitioners in this petition under Article 32 of the Constitution, appeared for the examination held in October, 1945 for recruitment to the Indian Audit and Accounts Service and other Allied Central Services. On the basis of the result of the examination both of them were selected for appointment to the Postal Superintendents Service Class II. Petitioner No. 1, S. K. Ghosh, joined a post in that Service on probation with effect from 9th April, 1947, while petitioner No 2, A. M. Narula joined as a probationer on 11th February. 1947. At that time there was no Class I Service in the Postal Department. In Class II Service, to which these two petitioners were appointed. recruitment was made by a competitive examination to the extent of 50 per cent. while the remaining 50 per cent posts were filled by promotion from lower cadres of the Department.

(2.) On 24th May 1948, the Government sanctioned the creation of Indian Postal Service Class I with four grades follows:-

(3.) The Ministry of Home Affairs sub-sequently issued an Office Memorandum on 22nd December, 1959, laying down general principles for determining seniority of various categories of persons employed in Central Services. This Memo referred to various earlier Office Memoranda, including the one dated 22nd June. 1949 issued by the Home Ministry. Paragraph 3 of this Office Memo laid down that the instructions contained in those various Office Memoranda were thereby cancelled but made an exception in regard to determination of seniority of persons appointed to the various Central Services prior to the date of this Office Memorandum. The revised General Principles embodied in the Annexure to this Memorandum were not to apply with retrospective effect, but were to come into force with effect from the date of issue of these orders, unless a different date in respect of any particular service/grade from which these revised principles were to be adopted for purposes of determining seniority had already been or was to be thereafter agreed to by the Home Ministry. In para 2 of the Annexure it was again laid down that. subject to the provision of pare 3 below, persons appointed in a substantive or officiating capacity to a grade prior to the issue of these general principles were to retain the relative seniority already assigned to them or such seniority as might thereafter be assigned to them under the existing orders applicable to their cases and were to be en bloc senior to all others in that grade. It was, thus, the case of the petitioners that this Office Memorandum of 22nd December, 1959 did not in any way affect their seniority which had already been determined under the decision of the Government dated 30th January, 1957. Subsequently, the petitioners as well as respondents Nos. 3 to 7 were promoted as Directors. The common case of both the parties was that, by the time these promotions were made, the two grades of Directors of Postal Services were amalgamated into one single grade, and the promotions of the petitioners as well as respondents Nos. 3 to7 were to that grade. The case of the petitioners was that respondents Nos. 3 to 7 were promoted as Directors after the petitioners, so that the petitioners were recognised as seniors in the grade of Directors also. These promotions, according to the petitioners, were made some time in the years 1961 and 1962.