DEBESH CHANDRA DAS Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This matter has been assigned to me under clause 36 of the Letters Patent. P. B. Mukharji. J., and A. N. Sen, J., by their Lordships' order of April 11, 1968, have been pleased to state that their point of disagreement is as follows:--

(2.) In 1933, the petitioner qualified himself for the Indian Civil Service. In 1934, the petitioner, after serving his period of probation, arrived in India and was allotted to Assam, now known as the State of Assam. Between 1938 and 1940 he held the post of Under-Secretary to the Assam Government in the Home (Political) Department. In 1940, the Government of Assam placed the petitioner's services at the disposal of the Government of India and he was appointed to the post of Under-Secretary in the Home Department. In 1947, the petitioner held the post of the Deputy Secretary to the Government of India in its Home Department; but at the end of that year the Assam Government required his services and he was successively appointed in Assam to the posts of the Development Commissioner, the Additional Chief Secretary and the Chief Secretary. Between 1951 and 1954 the petitioner again served the Government of India as Secretary to the Union Public Service Commission, Between January 1955 and February 1961, he was the Joint Secretary to the Government of India in the Ministry of Transport and Communication. From February 1961, to July 1964, the petitioner was the Managing Director of the Central Warehousing Corporation which was a statutory corporation outside the Secretariat of the Government of India. In July 1964, the petitioner was appointed Secretary to the Ministry of Social Security, Government of India, later named as the Ministry of Special Welfare. And it is his present post as Secretary to the Government of India which is the subject-matter of this dispute.

(3.) On the 29th July, 1964, the petitioner's appointment as Secretary, Department of Social Security was approved by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet for six months in the first instance. Two days later, that is, on the 31st July, 1964, there was a gazette notification to the following effect:--