MOHAN LAL KAUL Vs. STATE OF RAJASTHAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS petition under Article 226 of the Constitution has been referred for decision to a Division Bench by a learned single Judge of this Court along with some other similar writ petitions including Hem Dutt Mathur v. The State of Rajasthan and Ors. (D. B. Civil Writ Petition No. 416/1967) and Achal Das v. The Municipal Council, Jodhpur and Anr. (D. B. Civil Writ Petition No. 10 of 1969 ).

(2.) THE material facts which appear to have been established from the record are these. Mohan Lal, petitioner, was born on 2-1-1914. He joined Government service under the erstwhile State of Jodhpur as clerk, Pholdi Municipality in 1936. In 1940 he was transferred to Jodhpur Municipality. These Municipalities were departments of the State at that time and he was governed by the Jodhpur Government Service Regulations under which a Government servant was required to retire from service on attaining the age of 55 years. The Jodhpur Municipal Act was framed in 1943 and it made the Jodhpur Government Service Regulations applicable to officers and servants of the Jodhpur Municipality. This did not make any change in the service conditions of the petitioner as he was already governed by the Jodhpur Government Service Regulations. Since however he ceased to be a Jodhpur Government servant on the coming into force of the Jodhpur Municipal Act, 1943 he was governed by the Jodhpur Government Service Regulations only by virtue of the provisions of Section 66 as contained in the Jodhpur Municipal Act, 1943 which read as follows:-- Application of the Jodhpur Government Service Regulations to the Municipal Servants.--The Jodhpur Government Service Regulations will apply to all officers and servants of the Municipality.

(3.) THE legal effect of this change was that the Jodhpur Government Service Regulations as they stood in 1943 were applicable to the petitioner with effect from the coming into force of that Act and future amendments of these regulations were not applicable to him. In this connection we may refer to the decision of their Lordships of the Supreme Court in D. Shama Rao v. The Union Territory of Pondicherry [1967] 20 S. T. C. 215 (S. C. ).