Ahmadi, J. - (1.) Special Leave granted.
(2.) The appellants and the writ petitioners are presently serving in the Time Keeping Department of the Naval Dockyard, Bombay, which is under the administrative control of the Vice-Admiral. Flag Officer, Commanding-in-Chief. Western Naval Command, Bombay. In the said department there are several posts of Junior Time Keepers and only two posts of Senior Time Keepers. Since the promotional posts were limited in number there was stagnation at the base level of Junior Time Keepers. With a view to removing this stagnation, the cadre of Time Keepers was sought to be amalgamated with the clerical cadre in the same department. On 14th September, 1966, the Under Secretary to the Government of India. Ministry of Defence, wrote a letter to the Chief of Naval Staff on the subject of amalgamation of the Time Keepers cadre with the clerical cadre. The text of the letter reads as under : "Sir, I am directed to convey the sanction of the President to the merger of the cadre of time keepers with the clerical cadre in all Naval Establishments. Consequent on this merger, Senior Time Keepers will be redesignated as Upper Division Clerks. The authorised ratio of 1:4 between UDCs and LDCs will be maintained after this merger but where because of the merger and redesignation of Senior Time Keepers as Upper Division Clerks the number of Upper Division Clerks exceeds the authorised ratio, no reversions will be made and the excess vacancies of Upper Division Clerks will be adjusted against vacancies of Upper Division Clerks becoming available by way of increase in Establishment, retirement, etc. 2. The existing pay of the time keepers will be protected and they will continue to draw increments in the new cadre on the due dates. 3. Any subsidiary instructions regarding seniority promotion etc. will be issued by you. 4. This letter issues with the concurrence of Ministry of Finance ( Defence/Navy) vide their U.O.No. 3161 NA dated 31-8-1966." A few days later another letter dated 5th December, 1966 was issued by the office of the Rear Admiral, Western Naval Command, Bombay, on the same subject which reads as under : "In accordance with the Govt. of India, Ministry of Defence letter No. CP (A)/4895/NHQ/8634/D/N-II dated 14th September, 1966 the Cadre of Time Keepers will be merged with that of LDC/UDC with effect from 1st December, 1966. 2. This merger is intended only to give promotion to the Time Keepers along with the LDC/UDC. Their duties, terms and conditions of service will remain the same and their hours of work will also continue to be 45 in a week. 3. consequent upon the issue of this order and in order to distinguish them from the UDC/LDC and UDC(s)/ LDC(s) the suffix "T" will be added after their designation. All records and correspondence relating to them should also be indicated by this suffix." The employees working in the Time Keeping Department were entitled to the benefit of overtime and productivity linked bonus since they were considered to belong to the industrial wing. Lower Division Clerks and Upper Division Clerks belonging to the clerical cadre who were working in different administrative offices of the Naval dockyard were not entitled to this benefit. Therefore, when one Thoppil Ramakrishnan was transferred in August, 1980 as UDC(T) in the Spare Parts Distribution Centre, he challenged his transfer by filing a Writ Petition No. 1065/SO in the High Court of Bombay on the ground that since he was appointed as Junior Time Keeper in 1953 and was promoted as UDC(T) in 1967 he belonged to a special cadre and could not be transferred to the general cadre as that would entail loss of the benefit of overtime and productivity linked bonus. His petition was allowed by the High Court by the judgment and order dated 1st March, 1984. The High Court, treating the letter of 5th December, 1966 as clarificatory, concluded that the merger was intended for the sole purpose of making available to the Time Keepers avenues of promotion in the clerical cadre but their terms and conditions of service were to remain intact and it is for that purpose that they were to be designated by the suffix "T". The High Court, therefore, held that there was no complete merger of the two cadres. The High Court, however, realised that Time Keepers could not be given promotion to more responsible assignments unless they received the required experience of administrative work normally available to Lower Division Clerks and Upper Division Clerks, but rested content on the statement made by the counsel for the petitioner that the petitioner will not claim the benefit of promotion in the clerical cadre. On this statement the High Court made the rule absolute. Against this judgment a Letters Patent Appeal was filed but without success. Another Writ Petition No. 1066/80 filed by Chob Singh Tomar was similarly disposed of by the same learned Judge on the next day i.e. 2nd March, 1984.
(3.) Both the above judgments were mainly based on the language of the letter of 5th December, 1966. Realising the difficulty created by the said letter. the Flag Officer, Commanding-in-Chief, Western Naval Command, Bombay, cancelled the said letter by his communication dated 27th August, 1984. This subsequent communication reads as under : "1. Ministry of Defence Letter CP (A)/4895/NHQ/8634/D (N-II) dated 14 Sep. 66 is reproduced as Annexure I to this order for information. 2. This Headquarters Civilian Establishment order Part II of 1966 No. 6 dated 5 Dec. 66 and 50/80 dated 23 Aug. 80 are hereby cancelled." By a subsequent letter dated 20th November, 1984 it was further directed that the suffix "S" and suffix "T" should be removed from all records and the incumbents should be redesignated as LDCs/UDCs. On the cancellation of the letter of 5th December, 1966 and the removal of the suffix "T", what survived was only the merger order of 14th September, 1966. Consequently inter se transfers from the Time Keeping Department to the various administrative departments of the Naval Dockyard became possible. Thereupon, R.A. Sawant and R. D. Jawakar who were working in the Time Keeping Department were transferred on promotion as UDC by orders dated 17th April, 1985 and 5th October, 1985 respectively to other administrative departments of the Naval establishment. These transfers triggered off certain writ petitions in the High Court of Bombay. On the constitution of the Central Administrative Tribunal for that area, those writ petitions were transferred to the Tribunal for disposal in accordance with law. The Tribunal by its impugned common judgment dated 9th October, 1989 came to the conclusion that after the cancellation of the order dated 5th December, 1966 the field was held by the Presidential Order referred to in the letter of 14th September, 1966. The Tribunal held that the employees in the Time Keeping Department no longer belonged to a separate cadre and the authorities were entitled to transfer them to the other ministerial branches in the Naval establishment under the Merger Scheme. In regard to the judgments delivered by the High Court of Bombay on 1st and 2nd March, 1984, it opined that on the cancellation of the order of 5th December, 1966 those decisions had lost their force and the question had to be answered solely on the basis of Presidential Order referred to in the letter of 14th September, 1966. In this view of the matter the Tribunal dismissed the applications and vacated the interim orders. It is against the said, judgment of the Tribunal that the aforesaid appeals have been filed.;