HARNANDAN PRASAD Vs. STATE OF BIHAR AND ORS.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner, Shri Harnandan Prasad, was appointed as Deputy Collector in the year 1937 to serve under the Government of Bihar. He continued to serve as a State Servant until he was promoted and appointed to the Indian Administrative Service on the 15th of May, 1957 as a special recruit. By the impugned order contained in the letter of Government of India, Ministry of Home Affairs, being letter No. 6/18/56-AIS (II) dated the 3rd of Sept., 1958, the petitioner's year of allotment was fixed as 1957 counting his officiation in a senior post from the 18th of Feb., 1957 when his name, according to the said order, a copy of which is annexed A, is said to have been included in the Select List of 1956. The petitioner obtained a rule from this Court under Art. 226 of the Constitution of an application in which were impleaded initially the State of Bihar as first respondent and the Union of India as second respondent to show cause why the said order be not quashed and why the respondent should not be directed to assign the year of allotment to the petitioner on the basis of his continuous officiation in a senior post from the 26th of Dec., 1955. In this application were subsequently added respondents 3 to 19, several other officers belonging to the Indian Administrative service, who may be affected by assignment of a prior year of allotment to the petitioner. Cause has been shown at the time of the hearing of the writ application on behalf of respondents 1 and 2 by the learned Government Advocate of the State of Bihar.

(2.) The relevant rules and regulations in connection with the assignment of an allotment year and determination of seniority of officers appointed to the Service by promotion in relation to the direct recruits were considered by a Special Bench of this Court, of which I was a member, in C.W.J.C. Nos. 853, 854, 877, 878, 879 and 880 of 1968, D/- 7-11-1969 (Pat.). I shall have occasion to refer to that decision in this judgment after I have briefly stated some more facts of the petitioner's case.

(3.) The petitioner was appointed to the post of the Deputy Secretary to the Government of Bihar, Finance Department, on the 21st of April, 1949. But, according to his case in the writ petition, the said post was made cadre post and he held it as such from the 26th of Dec., 1955. In support of this fact, the petitioner has annexed as annexure D a copy of the letter dated the 20th Aug., 1957 from the Accountant-General, Bihar, to the Deputy Secretary, Finance Department, in reply to the letter of the Finance Department dated the 1st of Dec., 1956. This letter (annexure D) shows that by the letter dated 1-12-1956 the orders of the Government were conveyed to the Accountant General that the petitioner would be deemed to be holding with effect from the 26th of Dec., 1955 the cadre post of Deputy Secretary allocated to the Finance Department; the petitioner, therefore, was entitled to draw pay, etc., in the senior scale of the Indian Administration Service from the 26th of Dec., 1955. A 'fit for trial List' was prepared by the State Government which was finally approved on the 26th of Dec., 1955. The petitioner's name was included in this List.