A.L. SRIVASTAVA AND OTHERS Vs. UNION OF INDIA THROUGH THE SECRETARY, MINISTRY OF EXTERNAL AFFAIRS, NEW DELHI AND OTHERS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioners were permanent member of Grade IV of the General Cadre of the Indian Foreign Service (Branch B) which will hereinafter be called merely as the Service unless in the context it becomes necessary to describe it more fully. The first and the second petitioners were appointed to the Service in 1958 as a result of the Assistants' Grade Competitive Examination conducted by the Union Public Service Commission in 1957, the third petitioner was recruited at the time of the initial constitution of the service on the basis of a selection, on criterion of merit, from amongst the Assistants working in the Central and State Secretariaties and persons of equivalent rank serving in the offices of the Central and State Governments. The Service was constituted on 1st August. 1956 in pursuance of a memorandum issued by the Government of India, Ministry of External Affairs, described as "Initial Constitution. Indian Foreign Service, Branch B, 1956". The grades and scales of pay were similar to those obtaining in the Central Secretariat. Personnel were recruited mostly on transfer from the three Services in the Central Secretariat:-

(2.) According to the above scheme dated 1st Aug., 1956 (which will hereinafter be called the "Scheme") Grade III of the General Cadre was composed of both Sec. Officers and Personal Secretaries but in the Appendix posts were shown separately for administrative convenience. The memorandum disclosed separately 41 posts of Personal Secretaries. An extract from the said Appendix, showing the duty posts of Sec. Officers in Grades II and III, is Annexure A to the writ petition. It is the petitioners' contention that the aforesaid memorandum did not provide for promotion from one grade to another in the Service and that it was specifically provided therein that "future" maintenance of the Service would be in accordance with the rules to be promulgated by the Central Government in due course.

(3.) The Second Pay Commission recommended that the two Grades of the Sec. Officers should be amalgamated and should be given a unified scale of pay. It also considered the suggestion that the Personal Secretaries belonging to Grade I of the Stenographers' Service should have the same career prospects as were available to Assistants and in order to make this feasible the Central Secretariat Service and the Central Secretariat Stenographers' Service should be merged into one. The second pay Commission did not accept this suggestion for it considered that the nature of work and duties as well as the qualifications for recruitment were different for the Assistants and Stenographers. The recommendation of the Second Pay Commission, therefore, was that Stenographers should be eligible for promotion only to a limited number of posts of Sec. Officers as was the case till then. The relevant extracts from the Pay Commission Report are contained in Annexure B to the petition.