- (1.) Special leave granted.
(2.) The respondents were serving in two different private colleges which were taken over w. e. f. 1-6-1974. The memorandum in that behalf was issued on 12-4-1974. In regard to the services of the existing staff of the said two private colleges, namely, Guru Arjan Dev College, Tarn Taran (Amritsar) and Guru Nanak College, Kala Afgana (Gurdaspur) , the memorandum provided as under: "(C) The Government will not accept any liability after the college is taken over by them. (d) Such members of the staff of these colleges, as fulfill necessary qualifications and are considered suitable for absorption in government service by the Punjab Public Service Commission/sss Board shall be treated as new entrants. (e) Only government scales of pay of respective category shall be permissible to them and there shall be no personal grade for anyone. Their pay in the government scales will be fixed on the basis of length of service in equivalent/identical or higher time scales. There shall be no guarantee in regard to protecting existing salaries. The staff subject to their suitability shall be appointed on probation for a period of one year. Their absorption on regular basis shall, however, be subject to the condition laid down in sub-para (d) above. (f) The members of the staff will be treated as fresh entrants and they will be placed at the bottom of old government employees in their respective cadre. "
(3.) It will be seen from the above clauses of the memorandum that employees of the private colleges were to be absorbed in government service if they possessed the necessary qualifications and were found suitable for absorption by the Punjab Public Service Commission/sss Board. They were to be treated as new entrants. But, for the purposes of fixation of pay in the time scale, their length of service in equivalent/identical position in private colleges had to be taken into consideration. However, no guarantee was given in regard to protection of existing salaries if the same happened to be in excess of the prescribed salary for government employees in corresponding positions. Accordingly, the respondents were given fitment in the regular scale, which was available in the government college to which they became entitled on the basis of equivalence of posts. There is no dispute that the respondents were given this fitment as per the clause in the memorandum.;