T L KRISHNAIAH Vs. STATE OF MYSORE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The principal prayer in these two writ petitions which are filed by first division clerks of the Revenue Department of the divisions of Bangalore and Mysore respectively, is that certain circular instructions issued by the State Government under No. RD 205 BSC 67 dated 2-9-1967 should be quashed as illegal and proceeding upon a misunderstanding of the ruling of this Court in W.P.2335/63 (Kadegowda v. State of Mysore and others) decided on 31-8-1965. If the disputes touching the said prayer are dealt with and disposed of, other questions and contentions raised which are all in the nature of arguments in support of the main prayer will cease to be of any interest.

(2.) The back-ground of facts leading to the presentation of these writ petitions is briefly as follows :- In the erstwhile State of Mysore, employees in the Revenue Department were placed in two different categories, ministerial branch attending to office work only, and the executive branch which attended to what may be described as 'field work' also. According to the rules then prevalent in the ministerial branch a person who started service as a second division clerk, after confirmation and promotion to the cadre of first division clerk, would be eligible for promotion as Taluk Sheristedar; a second division clerk transferred to the executive branch besides getting himself confirmed as second division clerk had to be confirmed once again as second grade Revenue Inspector and then promoted as first grade Revenue Inspector and thereafter as Taluk Sheristedar. This necessity for two confirmations at the lowest position led to a certain timelag in the transferees to the execution branch earning promotion to the position of Taluk Sheristedar.

(3.) One of the persons who suffered this disadvantage and saw his quondam associates in the ministerial branch getting promoted, though junior to himself, presented a writ petition No.2335/1963 referred to above.