M AJALEEL Vs. STATE OF MYSORE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioners in Writ Petitions Nos. 511, 548 and 549 of 1960, were Sales Tax Officers Class II in the erstwhile State of Hyderabad and those in Writ Petitions Nos. 510 and 540 of 1960, Sales Tax Officers, Grade III, in the then State of Bombay. When three districts of the erstwhile State of Hyderabad and four districts of the State of Bombay became part of the now State of Mysore, which was formed on November 1, 1956, by the States Re-organisation Act, they were allotted under that Act for service in the new State of Mysore. They are now in the service of that State.

(2.) The civil service of the new State of Mysore consisted principally of persons who were before its formation, holding posts under the then Stales of Mysore, Hyderabad, Coorg, Madras and. Bombay. The various services of which there wag thus a concourse in the new State of Mysore, required integration, and, for that purpose, that State made on May 25, 1957, a list recording the provisional determination of the relative seniority and deification of two classes of its civil servants in the department of Commercial Taxes. The final determination was made on May 3, 1960, and by that determination, the Post of a Sales Tax Officer. Class II of the former State of Hyderabad and that of a Sales-tax Officer, Grade III of the then State of Bombay were equated with effect from November 1, 1956, with that of an Assistant Commercial Tax Officer in the new State of Mysore. The petitioners contend that by this classification which, according to them, the State had no competence to make, and which transgressed the proviso appearing under Section 115(7) of the State Re-organisation Act, they were reduced in rank in violation of Article 311(2) of the Constitution.

(3.) Until October, 1957, four sales-tax laws were operating in the new State of Mysore. They were the Mysore Sales-tax Act, 1948, the Hyderabad General Sales-tax Act, the Bombay Sales-tax Act and the Madras General Sales Tax Act. The assessing authorities having power to make assessments of sales tax under those laws were: