Koshal, J. - (1.) By this judgement we shall dispose of 42 appeals by special leave, namely, Civil Appeals Nos. 2329 to 2370 of 1977, all of which are directed against a judgement dated the 30th November, 1976 of a Division Bench of the High Court of Karnataka. Civil Appeals Nos. 2329 and 2351 to 2370 of 1977 have been filed by different persons who were appointed Assistant Engineers in the Karnataka State on 31st October, 1961, by way of direct recruitment while the other 21 appeals have been filed by that State.
(2.) The facts giving rise to the impugned judgement may be set down in some detail. A new State came into existence on the 1st of November, 1956 as a result of integration of the areas which formed part of the erstwhile States of Mysore, Madras, Coorg, Bombay and Hyderabad (hereinafter referred to as the Merged States). It was then given the name of one of its constituents namely, the State of Mysore, which was later changed to that of the Karnataka State. In the Public Works Departments of the Merged States there was a class of non-gazetted officers ranking below Assistant Engineers. The class was designated as Graduate Supervisor in the Merged State of Mysore, as Junior Engineers in the Merged State of Madras and as Supervisors in the Merged States of Hyderabad and Bombay. The Graduate Supervisors were paid a fixed salary of Rupees 225/- per mensem which was lower by Rs. 25/- per mensem as compared to the starting salary of Assistant Engineers, who, in the normal course, were expected to head sub-divisions. To the post of Assistant Engineers a Graduate Supervisor was appointed only on promotion. Prior to the 1st of November, 1956, quite a few Graduate Supervisors were given charge of sub-divisions and designated as Sub-Divisional Officers in order to meet the exigencies of service and they continued to act as such after the merger when they claimed equation of their posts with those of Assistant Engineers in the matter of integration of services. To begin with their claim was turned down by the Central Government who equated the posts of Graduate Supervisors with the posts of Junior Engineers of the Merged State of Madras and the posts of Supervisors of the Merged States of Hyderabad and Bombay. By a notification dated the 6th of February, 1958, the Government of Karnataka (then known as the Government of Mysore) promulgated the Mysore Government Servants (Probation) Rules, 1957 (hereinafter called the Probation Rules) and on the next day came into force the Mysore Government Servants (Seniority) Rules, 1957 (hereinafter referred to as the Seniority Rules), both having been framed under Article 309 of the Constitution of India. On the 1st of October, 1958, the Karnataka Public Service Commission invited applications from candidates for appointment to the posts of Assistant Engineers by direct recruitment. In the meantime Graduate Supervisors and Government employees holding equivalent posts had continued to press their claim for the equation of their posts with the posts of Assistant Engineers and they succeeded partially when, on the 15th of November, 1958, the Karnataka Government promoted 167 of them (including 107 Graduate Supervisors who had been working as such is the Merged State of Mysore) as officiating Assistant Engineers with immediate effect. The promotion was notified in the State Gazette dated the 20th of November, 1958 (Exhibit A) the relavant portion where of may be reproduced for facility of reference: ".....The following supervisors of Public Works Department are promoted as officiating Assistant Engineers with immediate effect and until further orders against the existing vacancies subject to review after the finalisation of the Inter-State Seniority List of Supervisors and the Cadre and Recruitment Rules of Public Works Department. The promotion of officers from Sl. No. 74 to 167 against existing vacancies will be purely on a temporary basis pending filling up of the vacancies by Direct Recruitment as per rules. The seniority inter se of the promotees will be provisionally according to the order given below.....". 299 more persons of the same class were promoted to the posts of Assistant Engineers by eight notifications published during the period from 22nd of December, 1958 to the 13th of October 1960. On the 21st (31st ) of August, 1960, the State Government passed an order in regard to the 107 Graduate Supervisors from the Merged State of Mysore as mentioned above, directing that they be treated as Assistant Engineers and be paid the pre-revision scale of pay of Rs. 250-25-450 from the 1st of November, 1956 to the 31st of December, 1956 and the revised scale of pay of Rs. 250-25-450-30-600 from the 1st of January, 1957 onwards. The order further directed that the said 107 officers shall be placed in the inter-State seniority list below the Assistant Engineers. On the 3rd of December, 1960, the Karnataka Government promulgated the Mysore Public Works Engineering Department Services (Recruitment) Rules, 1960 (hereinafter referred to as the Recruitment Rules) under Articles 309 of the Constitution of India, which envisaged appointment of Assistant Engineers in the Public Works Department by direct recruitment to the extent of 40 percent and by promotion for the rest, viz, 80% from the cadre of Junior Engineers and 10 percent from the cadre of Supervisors. The cadre of Assistant Engineers was stated in the Rules to consist of 344 permanent and 345 temporary posts. On the 23rd of October, 1961, the Recruitment Rules were amended so as to be operative retrospectively i.e., with effect from the 1st of March, 1958. On the 31st of October, 1961, 88 candidates were appointed as Probationary Assistant Engineers by direct recruitment. Two notifications were issued by the State Government on the 27th of February, 1962. By each one of them 231 Junior Engineers were given "regular promotions" as Assistant Engineers with effect from specified dates falling within the period 15th of November, 1958 to the 10th of November 1960. The first of these notifications stated inter alia: ".....However, the promotions are subject to review after finalisation of Inter-State Seniority List of Junior Engineers...". The second of the notifications issued on the 27th February, 1962, mentioned that the officers named therein would be deemed to be temporarily promoted and permitted to continue to officiate as Assistant Engineers on a provisional basis and until further orders. The case of the said 107 officers received further consideration at the hands of the State Government, who, on the 6th of October, 1962, issued another order (Exhibit D) superseding the one dated the 31st of August, 1960, and promoting them as Assistant Engineers with effect from the 1st of Nov. 1956. By the 24th of September, 1966, the number of Probationary Assistant Engineers appointed through direct recruitment (hereinafter called direct recruits) had fallen to 85 for reasons which need not be stated. On that day the State Government passed an order that they had all completed their period of probation satisfactorily and stood absorbed against the substantive vacancies with effect from the 1st of November, 1962. In 1971 various orders were passed promoting some of the direct recruits to the posts of Executive Engineers and these orders were challenged in a writ petition dated the 15th of September, 1971, by the promotees to the posts of Assistant Engineers (hereinafter referred to as the promotees). On the 26th of September, 1972, a list (Exhibit G) of Assistant Engineers indicating their seniority inter se as on the 1st of November, 1959, was prepared by the State Government. In that list the promotees were accorded seniority to their satisfaction. However, that list was superseded by another list dated the 4th of September, 1973, in which the seniority inter se of all Assistant Engineers functioning in the State Public Works Department as on 1st of January, 1973 was declared. The new list purported to have been framed in accordance with the Recruitment Rules. Objections to the list were invited and were submitted by various officers. During the year 1973 more writ petitions challenging the promotion of direct recruits to the posts of Executive Engineers were instituted by the promotees on whose behalf two claims were made before the High Court namely: (1) that they had been regularly promoted as Assistant Engineers against substantive vacancies with retrospective effect and rightly so; and (2) that in the case of those of them whose promotion was made effective from a date prior to the 1st of March, 1958, the Recruitment Rules, especially the quota rule, could not affect them adversely. Both these claims were accepted by the High Court, the first on the basis of the decision of this Court in Ram Prakash Khanna, v. S. A. F. Abbas AIR 1972 SC 2350 coupled with the pleadings of the parties and the various orders issued by the State Government and mentioned above, and the second on the authority of another decision of this Court in V. B. Badami v. State of Mysore (1976) 1 SCR 815. The High Court accordingly held that the quota rule would not be attracted to the case of those promotees who had been appointed to the posts of Assistant Engineers with effect from a date prior to the 1st of March, 1958. By way of a 'clarification' the High Court further ruled that the promotion of the 107 officers working in the merged State of Mysore was made to substantive posts of Assistant Engineers with effect from 1st of November, 1956, and that the State Government or the direct recruits could not be allowed to urge to the contrary. According to the High Court such promotion was subject to review only if the course was warranted and necessitated by the final inter-state seniority list of Junior Engineers, the right to review having been reserved by the Government in its orders dated the 27th of February, 1962. In relation to the direct recruits the High Court made a reference to the judgement of this Court in B. N. Nagrajan v. State of Mysore, (1966) 3 SCR 682 wherein it was held that their appointments, although made after the Recruitment Rules had come into force, were valid, as the process of direct recruitment had been set in motion by the State Government in exercise of its executive powers under Articles 162 of the Constitution of India well before the Recruitment Rules promulgated and that those appointments were therefore "outside the Recruitment Rules". The High Court consequently held that the direct recruits were also not subject to the quota rule which could not, according to it, affect them adversely. Summing up, the High Court gave the following directions: (1) Promotees other than those covered by direction (2) and direct recruits would not be governed by the quota system as envisaged in the Recruitment Rules. (2) Promotees who were appointed to posts of Assistant Engineers with effect from the 1st of March, 1958 or later dates, would be governed by the quota system as envisaged in the Recruitment Rules. (3) Promotees appointed Assistant Engineers prior to the 31st of October, 1961, would rank senior to the direct recruits whose appointments were made on that date. (4) The claim of each of the promotees to the next higher post shall be considered with effect from a day prior to that on which any officer found junior to him was promoted.
(3.) The first contention we would like to deal with is one raised by Mr. F. S. Nariman appearing for the direct recruits. He argued that the scope of the writ petitions instituted by the promotees was limited to the question of promotion of Assistant Engineers as Executive Engineers and that no challenge to the seniority list dated the 4th of September, 1973 could be entertained. In this connection reference was made to the prayer clause appearing in Writ Petition No. 462 of 1973 which is in the following terms: "In this writ petition, it is prayed that this Court may be pleased to: (1) Quash the promotion of respondents 2 to 31 to the cadre of Executive Engineers made as per order dated 3-2-1973; (2) Direct the I respondent to consider the case of the petitioner for promotion to the cadre of Executive Engineers with effect from 3-2-1973 on which date respondents 2 to 31 were promoted; and (3) Pass an interim order, restraining the I respondent from making further promotion to the cadre of Executive Engineers without considering the case of the petitioner for such promotion, pending disposal of this writ petition." (It was assumed at the hearing of the appeals that the prayer made in the other writ petitions is to a similar effect). It is true that no prayer has been made by the promotees to quash or rectify the seniority list dated the 4th of Sept. 1973, but then their whole case is based on the contention that they had been promoted to the posts of Assistant Engineers in a substantive capacity prior to the appointment of the direct recruits, that they would take precedence over direct recruits in the matter of seniority and regular absorption in the cadre of Assistant Engineers and that it was on that account that the promotion of direct recruits to the posts of Executive Engineers without consideration of the case of the promotees for such promotion was illegal. The attack on the said seniority list therefore is inherent in the case set up by the promotees, of which it forms an integral part. In this view of the matter we cannot agree with Mr. Nariman that the scope of the writ petitions is limited as stated by him.;