RANGANATH MISRA - (1.) THE Judgment of the court was delivered by
(2.) THE obstinate problem of inter se seniority, this time amongst officers in the Karnataka Administrative Service has fallen for determination in this group of appeals by special leave and Writ Petition under Article 32 of the Constitution at the instance of both direct recruits and promotees. It is not disputed that under the relevant Recruitment Rules of 1957 in regard to Class I Junior Scale posts there was a quota system - two-thirds of the vacancies had to be filled up by promotion by selection from Class II officers and the remaining one-third by direct recruitment by competitive examination to be held by the public service commission. When direct recruitment had not been made timely as envisaged by the scheme in the Rules officiating promotions were given in respect of posts covered by the direct recruit quota. Such temporary promotions remained effective for a number of years sometimes varying between 5 and 8 - and later when the vacancies within the direct recruitment quota were filled up, the appointments made in latter years were deemed to carry weightage for seniority on the footing of deemed filling up when vacancies had arisen. Thus the dispute as to seniority inter se between those who had manned the promotional posts beyond the two-thirds limit and the direct recruits subsequently appointed has come for judicial determination. A three-Judge bench of this court in V. B. Badami v. State of Mysore dealt with a situation of this type with reference to the same set of Rules. A similar dispute came before the Karnataka High court in a bunch of Writ Petition filed both by promotees and direct recruits and in view of common questions of fact and law involved therein, the High court disposed them by a common leading judgment 211 in the case of M. G. Kudali v. State of Karnataka. The High court noticed the ratio in Badami case and found that with a view to implementing the rule in Badami case the State government issued an official memorandum on 5/07/1976, laying down guidelines for determination of seniority between the direct recruits and promotees. The Gradation List of Junior Scale officers as on 30/06/1973 was drawn up following such guideline and was notified on 10/08/1976 with the following explanatory cover note: (i) Between 2/12/1957 and 10/09/1959, the number of substantive vacancies were thirty-nine and of those, twenty-six were promotional and thirteen were the share of direct recruits. The first fifteen of the promotional posts were given to allottees and the remaining eleven to promotees. In the absence of direct recruitment, these thirteen posts were carried forward. (ii) Between 11/09/1959 and 26/10/1964 (when 1962 direct recruits became due for promotion), the vacancies were seventy-six, of which fifty-one were available for direct recruits and twenty-five for promotees in view of the change in the proportion in the 1959 Rules. Twenty-three substantive vacancies were given to direct recruits of 1962. The net result, therefore, was thirteen direct recruit posts of the earlier period and twenty-eight of this period were carried forward : (iii) After October 1964, the vacancies were classified on annual basis. Up to 7/10/1971, sixty vacancies were filled up by promotion. As noticed earlier forty-one direct recruits vacancies had been carried forward and thirty-five fresh vacancies were available to direct recruits. Eleven vacancies were filled up by direct recruitment and sixty-five were carried forward.
(3.) BY a later notification dated 2/02/1977, when a further gradation list was published, the following explanatory note was added : (i) During the period 7/06/197 4/07/1976 (when direct recruits of 1974 were eligible for confirmation), eleven substantive vacancies were available on the basis of the permanent strength of the cadre ; (ii) Out of one hundred and thirty-three temporary posts available during that period, eighty-nine posts were assigned to promotees. The direct recruitment vacancies were carried forward from the earlier period. The recruits of the 1984 212 batch were assigned ranks taxing into account the direct recruitment vacancies carried forward for the previous period. On a representation by the 1974 batch of direct recruits for refixation of inter se seniority in the Gradation List taking into account only the permanent posts in the cadre and by taking into account the carried forward vacancies, tile State government made an order on 22/05/1980, to the effect that the 1974 batch of direct recruits should be shown immediately below serial number 64 and above serial number 65 in the continuation Gradation List published on 2/02/1977.;