- (1.) This appeal is brought, by special leave, from the judgment of the Madhya Pradesh High Court dated April 29, 1964 in Miscellaneous Petition No. 371 of l962. By its Judgment the High Court held that the preparation of provisional gradation lists by the State of Madhya Pradesh under the relevant provisions of the States Reorganisation Act, 1956 (Act 37 of 1956), hereinafter referred to as the "said Act", was unwarranted in law and the final list published on April 6, 1962 prepared by the State Government under instructions from the Central Government with regard to the integration of officers of the Engineering Department was illegal and ultra vires and must be quashed by the grant of a writ
(2.) The said Act was enacted to provide for the reorganisation of the States of India and for matters connected therewith and came into force with effect from November 1, 1956. By Section 9 (1) of the said Act there was formed a "new State" to be known as the State of Madhya Pradesh comprising the following territories : "(a) the territories of the existing State of Madhya Pradesh except the districts mentioned in Clause (c) of sub-section (1) of Section 8, (b) the territories of fee existing State of Madhya Bharat; except Sunel tappa of Bhanpura tahsil of Mandsaur district ; (c) Sironj sub-division of Kotah district in the existing State of Rajasthan; (d) the territories of the existing State of Bhopal; and (e) the territories of the existing State of Vindhya Pradesh." Respondents 1 to 13 were Assistant Engineers in the erstwhile State of Madhya Pradesh. The first four of them were appointed as such on probation from October 27, 1956 and the others had been appointed as temporary Engineers. The respondents continued to serve in the new State and new "Buildings, Roads and Irrigation Branch of the Public Works Department" was constituted with the officers taken over from the absorbed States and regions. The integration of the services became therefore necessary and a principle had to be evolved for integration of the services and fixing inter se-seniority as several officers had been taken over into the reconstituted branch. Section 115 of the said Act provides as follows : "115. Provisions relating to other services : 1. Every person who immediately be fore the appointed day is serving in connection with the affairs of the Union under the administrative control of the Lieutenant Governor or Chief Commissioner in any of the existing States of Ajmer, Bhopal, Coorg, Kutch and Vindhya Pradesh, or is serving in connection with the affairs of any of the existing States of Mysore, Punjab, Patiala, and East Punjab States Union and Saurashtra shall, as from that day, be deemed to have been allotted to serve in connection with the affairs of the successor State to that existing State. 2. Every person who immediately be fore the appointed day is serving in connection with the affairs of an existing State part of whose territories is transferred to another State by the provisions of Part II shall, a from that day, provisionally continue to serve in connection with the affairs of the principal successor State to that existing State unless he is required by general or special order of the Central Government to serve provisionally in connection with the affairs of any other successor State. 3. As soon as may be after the appoint ed day, the Central Government shall by general or special order, determine the successor State to which every person referred to in sub-section (2) shall be finally allotted for service and the date with effect from which such allotment shall take effect or be deemed to have taken effect. 4. Every person who is finally allotted under the provisions of sub-section (3) to a successor State shall, if he is not already serving therein be made available for serving in that successor State from such date as may be agreed upon between the Government concerned, and in default of such agreement, as may be determined by the Central Government. 5. The Central Government may by order establish one or more Advisory Committees for the purpose of assisting it in regard to - (a) the division and integration of the services among the new States and the States of Andhra Pradesh and Madras; and (b) the ensuring of fair and equitable treatment to all persons affected by the provisions of this section and the proper consideration of any representations made by such persons." Section 116 provided for the continuance of officers in the posts they previously held and Section 117 empowered the Central Government to give directions to the State Government in respect of their integration. Section 117 enacts : "The Central Government may at any time before or after the appointed day give such directions to any State Government as may appear to it to be necessary for the purpose of giving effect to the foregoing provisions of this Part and the State Government shall comply with such directions."
(3.) Subsequent to the passing of the said Act a meeting of the Chief Secretaries of the various States that were to be affected by the reorganisation was held at Delhi on May 18 and 19, l956 at the invitation of the Central Government. In this meeting certain decisions were taken as to the general principles that should be observed with regard to the integration work. By their letter No. 62/22/56 SR 11 dated April 3, 1957 (Annexure R-l of the counter-affidavit) the Government of India informed the State Government that they had decided that the work of integration of services should be dealt with by the State Governments in the light of general principles already decided in the meeting of the Chief Secretaries. The State Governments were also informed that the Central Government was constituting Advisory Committees for assisting them in dealing with the representations from the officers affected by reorganisation. With regard to the principle for determining equation of posts and relative seniority the following conclusions were reached at the conference of the Chief Secretaries : "It was agreed that in determining the equation of posts, the following factors should be borne in mind:- (i) the nature and duties of a post (ii) the responsibilities and powers exercised by the officers holding a post; the extent of territorial or other charge held or responsibilities discharged; (iii) The minimum qualifications, if any, prescribed for recruitment to the post; (iv) the salary of the post. It was agreed that in determining relative seniority as between two persons holding posts declared equivalent to each other, and drawn from different States, the following points should be taken into account : (i) Length of continuous service, whether temporary or permanent, in a particular grade; this should exclude periods for which an appointment is held in a purely stop-gap or fortuitous arrangements; (ii) age of the Person other factors being equal, for instance, seniority may be determined on the basis of age. Note: It was agreed that as far as possible, the inter seniority of officers drawn from the same State should not be disturbed.";