HARI PRASAD Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THESE two writ applications by the same petitioner Dr. Hari Prasad have been heard together and are being disposed of by a common judgment.

(2.) IN relation to doctors and medical men there were in the State of Bihar two cadres of Services previously, known as the Bihar Medical Service and the Bihar Health Service. The two Services were combined and amalgamated in the year 1967, and the combined Service is now called the Bihar Health Service; it was so done by a resolution of the Finance Department of the Government of Bihar. The petitioner claims that he was senior to many of the respondents who were subsequently added in C.W.J.C. 908 of 1968 and surely he was senior to Dr. Y.K. Sinha, respondent 5 in C. W. J. C. 83 of 1969, in the cadre of the Service even in the combined cadre. His grievance in the former case is that in view of certain resolutions of the Finance Department of the Government of Bihar the Health Department, all of a sudden, arbitrarily decided to adopt certain principles to be followed by the Government in the matter of promotion of officers to the selection grade post of Professors. A true copy of a letter written by the Under-Secretary to the Government to the Accountant-General on the 28th of May, 1968 embodying those principles is Annexure 1 to both the writ applications. Although in C. W. J. C. 908 of 1968 the fact to found the main ground of attack on Annexure 1 is not stated, in the other case it is specifically made out and not disputed by the State. The fact is that the said principles were issued by the Government without consulting the Bihar Public Service Commission. The petitioner's further case is that on the basis of the said principles Professors of the Medical Colleges were put in the selection grade of Professors in the scale of Rs. 1,700-50-1,850; a copy of the relevant letter is Annexure 2 to each of the writ applications. IN this Annexure 2 the petitioners name does not find place. His grievance is that he had more teaching experience than many who were included in that list, and on the basis of the arbitrary and illegal principles embodied in Annexure 1 their names were included while the name of the petitioner was not included. The prayer in C.W.J.C. 908 of 1968 is to quash Annexures 1 and 2 and to restrain the State of Bihar, respondent No. 1, and their officers in the Health Department, Respondents 2 to 4, from interfering with the relative seniority of the petitioner on the basis of the impugned annexures.

(3.) COUNTER-affidavits have been filed by the State in both the cases and by Dr. Y. K. Sinha in case No. 83. Affidavits in reply and further affidavits have been filed by the parties.