- (1.) Since these two appeals involve identical questions, we propose to state the facts of one of these only. The decision in Civil No. 1575 of 1970 will govern the other appeal.
(2.) The three appellants were appointed as temporary Junior Engineers in the Madras Highway Subordinate Service under Rule 10 (a) (1) (1) of the Madras State and Subordinate Services Rules. Appellants 1 and 2 were appointed on June 6 and June 8, 1951 respectively while the third appellant was appointed on 30/06/1950. A few years later they were appointed to the very same posts after selection by the public service commission and in course of time, orders were issued under Rule 23 (a) of the aforesaid rules permitting them to commence their probatibn from dates anterior to the dates of their appointments after selection by the public service commission but subsequent to the dates of their initial appointments under Rule 10 (a) (i) (l). The first appellant was permitted to commence his probationary period on 4/07/1954, the second on 18/07/1954 and the third on 15/03/1953.
(3.) On 1/11/1956, on the reorganisation of States, appellants were allotted as Junior Engineers to the Kerala State which was formed by inclusion therein of parts of the States of Madras and Travancoreochin. As in other States, so in Kerala, it became necessary to fix rules of seniority governing employees drawn from different States, parts of which were integrated in Kerela. A conference of Chief Secretaries of various States was held on May 18 and 19, 1956, to consider problems arising out of reorganisation of States and the consequent integration of services. Pursuant to the decision taken in that Conference, the government of Kerala passed an order on 29/12/1956 providing that the relative seniority as between persons drawn from different States and holding posts declared to be equivalent shall be determined by considering the length of continuous service in the equated grade, whether such service is temporary or officiating, quasi permanent or permanent. The orderhowever, expressly provided that in the aforesaid determination, the period for which an appointment was held "in a purely stopgap or emergency arrangement" was to be excluded. On 3/04/1957 the government of India issued a directive under S. 117 of the States Reorganisation Act stating that it was agreed that in determining the relative seniority as between two persons holding posts declared as equivalent to each other and drawn from different States, the length of continuous service, whether temporary or permanent, in the particular grade should be taken into account, excluding "periods for which an appointment is held in a purely stop-gap or fortuitous arrangement". On 2/04/1958 the government of Kerala issued a clarificatory order stating that for computing length of continuous service "only short periods for which an appointment was held in purely stop-gap or emergency appointment will be excluded". It issued another order on 16/08/1961 stating that one year of temporary service of Junior Engineers allotted. from Madras would be excluded for the purposes of fixing their interstate seniority. Representations were made against this order to the government of India which directed by an order dated 1/03/1962 that services rendered under provisional or emergency appointments by the Travancore-Cochin or Madras personnel prior to 1/11/1956 before regularisation of their appointments should be taken into account for the purposes of deciding interstate seniority, only if such service is either regularised, or it is in a time-scale of pay and is reckoned for grant of increments in the time-scale and is continuous. On 16/05/1962 the government of Kerala passed an order modifying its earlier orders so as to conform to the decision taken by the government of India on March 1. Consequently, in October 1962 a provisional integrated gradation list of Junior Engineers was prepared by the State government giving to the appellants ranks therein at serial nos. 145, 137 and 123 respectively.;