- (1.) These two civil appeals by special leave have been preferred against the common judgment of the Madhya Pradesh High court rendered in two writ petitions being Miscellaneous Petition No. 259 of 1982 and Miscellaneous Petition No. 503 of 1982. Certain persons after being selected by the public service commission were appointed as Sales Tax Inspectors in the State of Madhya Pradesh. They shall hereinafter for the sake of convenience be referred to as existing Sales Tax Inspectors. In another department of the government of Madhya Pradesh, there were certain persons who were working as Block Level Extension Officers. The government of Madhya Pradesh reorganised blocks all over the State as a result whereof 50 per cent of the posts of Block Level Extension Officers were rendered surplus. A policy decision was taken by the State government to absorb the surplus employees in equivalent posts in other government departments. A meeting was held on 30/09/1965 in the office room of the secretary Planning and Development Department for settling principles and procedure for absorption of such surplus personnel which was attended by the Secretaries of the various departments of the government, Director of Panchayat and Social Welfare, Director of Industries and Director of Public Instruction. In that meeting general principles and procedure forabsorbing the surplus personnel were settled and it was inter alia agreed that : "(A) the surplus staff should be absorbed on equivalent posts and carrying the same pay scale as far as possible. But if they are absorbed on posts carrying slightly lower pay scale, their present pay scale should be protected; (B) they should be treated as having been transferred from one post to another so that there may be no break in their service. "a Committee consisting of the Commissioner of Sales Tax, the Additional Commissioner of Sales Tax and the Deputy Commissioner of Sales Tax, Headquarters, held an interview of such surplus Block Level Extension Officers who were to be absorbed as Sales Tax Inspectors and as a result of that interview they were appointed to the post of Sales Tax Inspectors. These appointments seem to have been made on various dates between 13/02/1967 and 28/09/1970. The Block Level Extension Officers who were so absorbed as Sales Tax Inspectors shall hereinafter be referred to as the absorbed Sales Tax Inspectors. At this place it is necessary to refer to certain orders having a bearing on the matter of absorption as aforesaid. The first such order in the sequence which deserves to be noticed is a Memo dated 29/03/1967 issued in the name of governor of Madhya Pradesh. It provided: "The Ex-Block Development Officers and the Ex-Block Level Extension Officers have been exempted by the government from the competitive examinations to be conducted by the public service commission for the purpose of absorption as Sales Tax Inspectors. The selection of these personnel to the said post shall be done by the departmental selection committee. "
(2.) The other order which requires mention is a memorandum dated 22/05/1967 issued by the government of Madhya Pradesh General Administration Department inter alia to all departments of government. It contained certain decisions in respect of the surplus class III (Executive) ministerial and class IV employees of the development blocks on their absorption in other departments of government. These decisions inter alia were about fixation of pay and fixation of seniority. With regard to fixation of seniority it was provided that seniority should be fixed with regard to the completed years of service counted for fixation of initial pay and the number of increments allowed therein. This Memorandum was also issued "by order and in the name of the governor of Madhya Pradesh". With reference to this Memorandum it was, by a subsequent Memorandum dated 8/11/1967, provided that the State Government had further decided that the facilities granted to surplus personnel to the Development Blocks vide G. A. O. Memo under reference may alsobe extended to such employees absorbed in class III executive posts. At this place it may be mentioned that the post of Sales Tax Inspector is a class III (Executive) post. Another order dated 19/07/1973 was issued by the Madhya Pradesh government to all the Heads of the departments regarding facilities to the extra officials on being absorbed in other departments. The provision with regard to seniority was the same as in the Memorandum dated 22/05/1967.
(3.) As is apparent from the seniority list dated 6/01/1981 showing the position of the Sales Tax Inspectors as on 1/04/1980, the existing Sales Tax Inspectors were confirmed on various dates between 1/11/1956 and 5/10/1968. With regard to Fixation of seniority of the absorbed Sales Tax Inspectors no decision seems to have been take till 15/02/1980 when an order of that date was issued from the office of Sales Tax Commissioner of Madhya Pradesh which provided that the Sales Tax Inspectors mentioned therein who were absorbed between 1967 and 1970 were made permanent to that post according to the directions of the government with effect from 31/03/1967 (presumed date). The seniority list referred to above indicates that the names of the absorbed Sales Tax Inspectors are to be found at serial Nos. 21 to 104 having 31/03/1967 as the date of confirmation of all of them. The existing Sales Tax Inspector Soni Badri Prasad shown at serial No. 20 was confirmed on 22/05/1966 whereas the existing Sales Tax Inspector Gangrade Dashrath Lal shown at serial No. 105 was confirmed on 1/04/1967.;