V L NAGENDRA Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioners in thesa two petitions under Ant. 226 were allottees to the State of Karnataka from the former State of Madras. The common question involved herein is whether the service renderd by the petitioners in the equated posts should count for their seniority in the Final Inter-State Seniority List of the Gazetted Officers of the Public Works Dept.

(2.) The relevant facts are these: The petitioners originally entered service 35 Junior Engineers in the Highways Dept of the former State of Madras. Thereafter they were appointed under Rule 10(a) (i) of the General Rules for the State and Subordinate Services of the Madras State which provided for appointment of candidates on emergency basis. Nogendra the petitioner in WP.2072 of 1972 was appointed as Asst Engineer on 7-12-1955; Rama Mohan Nayak the petitioner in WP.2105 of 1972 was appointed as Asst Engineer on 16-8-1954. As a result of the Reorganisation of States they were alotted to the new State of Mysore (now Karnataka) with effect from 1-11-1956. The State Government for the purpose of equating the posts of the petitioners took a decision that the posts held by them, as on 1-11-1956 should be equated to the posit of Asst Engineer of Mysore and Asst Engineer of Hyderabad and Dy Engineer of Bombay. Accordingly Provincial Inter-State Seniority List was prepared. The petitioners were not aggrieved either by the equation or seniority given to them Thereafter the Central Govt with the assistance of the advice tendered by the Advisory Committee constituted under sub-sec(5) of S.115 of the States Reorganisation Act took a decision similar to one taken by the State Govt. Accordingly a Final Inter-Stata Seniority List of Gazetted Officers of the PWD was prepared and published by Notification d/.3rd Aug 1968 in the Karnataka Gazette(Exy) d|.6th Aug 1968. In that List Nagendra occupied 225th rank and Rama Mohan Nayak was ranked at Serial No. 181 in respect of which both of them had no grievance. However, the allottees from the former State of Bombay challenged the validity of their equation made by the Central Govt by preferring writ petitions in this Court. Those! writ petitions were allowed with a direction to the Central Govt to consider the representations of the said officials and re-do the Final Inter-State Seniority List. Pursuant to the direction the Contral Government prepared another Final Inter-State Seniority List which was published under Notification d|.6th Sep 1971 in the Karnataka Gazette d|.16th Sep 1971. In the said List Nagendra was ranked at SI.No.222 while Rama Mohan Nayak retained his ranking at SI.No. 181.

(3.) Interrupting the narration I have to state one other fact which had a turning point on the service conditions of the petitioners. In 1969 it was brought to the notice of the Central Govt through an affidavit filed before the Kerala High Count by one Mr.P.V.Antony an officer allotted from the former State of Madras to the reorganised Kerala State that Nagendara and Rama Mohan Nayak among others were appointed on emergency basis in tha former State of Madras and continued to remain as such till 31st Oct 1956. The averments in other words were to the effect that these petitioners were not regularly appointed to the cadre of Asst Engineers and the refore not entitled to the seniority in that cadre. Relying upon that information the Central Govt wanted to include the petitioners in a separate category in the Final Inter-State Seniority List of the Gazetted Officers of their cadre. For that purposethe Central Govt directed the State Govt to give an opportunity to the petitioners calling upon them why they should not be included in a separate category. On 5th Dec 1969 the State Govt issued a Notification stating thus :