- (1.) The petitioner is aggrieved by the order of compulsory retirement passed against him by the State Government under Note (1) to Art. 465 of the Civil Services Regulations. The order was passed on 21-9-73, Ann. 3. The petitioner unsuccessfully challenged this order before the U. P. Public Services Tribunal II, Lucknow, through a claim petition under S. 4, U. P. Public Services Tribunal Act. The order of the Tribunal dated 26-3-1977 is Ann. 3.
(2.) The petitioner challenged the order of compulsory retirement before the Tribunal on two grounds. Firstly, it was alleged that the petitioner had not completed 25 years qualifying service and, therefore, he could not be retired under Note (1) to Art. 465, secondly, it was pressed that the order was based on a consideration of irrelevant entries in his service record. Neither of the two grounds found favour with the Tribunal. The petitioner has, therefore, approached this Court. Both the grounds have been repeated before us. Before we deal with the grounds a few facts about which there is no dispute between the parties may be noticed.
(3.) The petitioner was appointed as Agriculture Inspector in the scale of Rs. 80-150 in Sept. 1945. This was a Group II post in the U. P. Subordinate Agriculture Service. While working on this post, the petitiSner was selected to the post of Senior Horticulture Inspector which was a Group I post in the Subordinate Agriculture Service in the pay scale of Rs. 200350. In pursuance of this selection the petitioner was issued appointment order on 11-12-1947 and he joined the post on 7-2-1948. In this service the petitioner was confirmed in July 1963 with retrospective effect from April 1959. In Nov. 1956 the petitioner was promoted to U. P. Agriculture Service Class II. On the Clars II post the appointment of the petitioner was approved by the U. P. Public Service Commission. In 1966 the U. P. Public Service Commission approved the petitioner's appointment to the post of Agriculture-Horticulture Officer. The petitioner held posts carrying various designations and he was finally posted as Superintendent, Government Gardens, Faizabad in May 1969. While he was so posted the impugned order of compulsory retirement was passed against him. From what has been stated hereinbefore it would be seen that right from Sept. 1945 till 21st Sept. 1973 when the order of retirement was passed the petitioner remained in the employment of the U. P. Government without break. Another fact which may be noticed is that there is no dispute between the parties that the Directorate of Agriculture in which the petitioner worked was a permanent and pensionable establishment.;