SHRI MADAN GOPAL SINGH, INSPECTOR GENERAL OF POLICE, H.P., SIMLA Vs. THE UNION OF INDIA AND ANOTHER, NEW DELHI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This and the connected Letters Patent Appeal are directed against the judgment and order of T.V.R. Tatachari, J. disposing of a writ petition by quashing two orders of the Central Government and declining to quash another. The connected writ petition challenges an order which is a sequel to the judgment and order of Tatachari, J.

(2.) Shri Madan Gopal Singh filed a writ petition on the following allegations. After serving initially as a Police Officer in the State of Kapurthala and thereafter in the Patiala and the East Punjab States Union he was appointed to the Indian Police Service on October 11, 1955, and was assigned "1948" as the year of allotment for the purposes of seniority under Rule 3 of the Indian Police Service (Regulation of Seniority) Rules, 1954. On the re-organisation of the States in 1956 he was absorbed in the Indian Police Service cadre of the new State of Punjab. In May, 1962 he was selected by the Government of India, Ministry of Home Affairs, for the post of Assistant Inspector General of Police, C.I.D. and Headquarters, in Himachal Pradesh, and the Petitioner joined the post on May 23, 1962. In May 1965 the post of Inspector General of Police, Himachal Pradesh, fell vacant, and he was appointed to that post on deputation for three years in the first instance with effect from May 17, 1965. At that time the pay scale attaching to that post was Rs. 1600-100-1800. It was a post in the joint cadre of Delhi-Himachal Pradesh. Subsequently, by an order dated October 31, 1966, the Government of India divided the cadre into two parts for the purpose of specifying its strength and composition, one part relating to the Delhi Administration and the other to the Government of Himachal Pradesh. In the part relating to Himachal Pradesh, 21 posts were sanctioned in all, two of them being the posts of Inspector General of Police and Deputy Inspector General of Police. The pay scales of these two posts were fixed asunder:

(3.) The writ petition was opposed by the Union of India and the Chief Secretary to the Government of Himachal Pradesh.