- (1.) The civil appeals are by special leave and the writ petition is under Article 32 of the Constitution. The Civil (sic) of 1985 is directed against an affirming division bench decision of the Madras High court dated 16/08/1984 in a writ appeal while the two other civil appeals are directed against two separate judgments of the central Administrative tribunal made in 1987 following the aforesaid Madras decision. The writ petition as will be presently indicated is by 29 petitioners who had not been regularly recruited to the service but later by amendment of the Rules were regularised in service in 1977.
(2.) The service with which we are concerned in this group of cases is known as "central Information Service" (CIS for short). This service was constituted by the central Information Service Rules, 1959 framed by the President in exercise of powers conferred by the proviso to Article 309 of the Constitution with effect from 1/03/1960 in terms of Rule 5. This was on the basis of selecting 400 'departmental candidates' as defined in Rule 2-B of the Rules. Rule 6 provides that after the initial constitution of the service, future vacancies in grade IV would be filled by direct recruitment on the basis of the result of a competitive examination conducted by the Union public service commission in accordance with the educational qualifications and age limit mentioned in Schedule VIII and the scheme of examination which is to be finalised in consultation with the Commission.
(3.) Under Rule 4 the service has seven tiers beginning with grade IV and going up to the selection grade. Direct recruitment is to grade IV and the higher grades are manned on the basis of promotion. The requirements of promotional qualifications are in Rule 6-A. In this group of cases the dispute is one of inter se seniority among direct recruits to grade IV.;