SHANKARAYYA Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These are connected writ petitions. In these writ petitions, most of the contentions raised are common and hence it would be convenient to deal with them together. Excepting Writ Petitions No. 2574 of 1963 and No. 53 of 1964, the rest of the writ petitions were filed by officers, who before the reorganization of State were borne on the cadre of Assistant Conservator of Forests in the erstwhile State of Mysore. They stood allotted to the new State of Mysore under S. 115 of the States Reorganization Act, 1956, to be hereinafter referred to as the Act. The petitioner in Writ Petition No. 2574 of 1963 was recruited as an Assistant Conservator of Forests in 1953 in the State of Madras. At the time of the reorganization of the States, he was serving as an assistant to the District Forest Officer at South Kanara. After the reorganization, he was allotted to the new State of Mysore. The petitioner in Writ Petition No. 53 of 1964 was serving as an Assistant Conservator of Forests in the State of Madras on the date of the reorganization of the States, he having been promoted to that post on 21 September, 1945.

(2.) Reliefs claimed by such of the petitioners who were allotted from the erstwhile State of Mysore are identical. They ask this Court to issue a writ of certiorari calling for the records culminating in the decision of respondent (the Union of India) that the Assistant Conservator of Forests allotted from the erstwhile State of Mysore be equated in category IV, in the categorization made by it and quash the same, and further to direct respondent 1 to include them in category III.

(3.) The petitioner in Writ Petition No. 2574 of 1963 prays that this Court may be pleased to quash the order of respondent 1 rejecting his claim to be equated with the Deputy Conservator of Forests allotted to this State from the former States of Bombay and Hyderabad and placed in category III.