D.D. Seth, J. - (1.) This is a petition under Article 226 of the Constitution.
(2.) The facts, as contained in the petition, are that in September 1947 the petitioner was appointed a Judicial Magistrate by the State Government under a scheme framed for the separation of Executive from Judiciary in this State and under which the State Government created a new cadre of Judicial Officers, The petitioner along with 59 other persons out of the cadre of Judicial Magistrates and Revenue Officers was confirmed in the new cadre of Judicial Officers on 1 April. 1951, In the year 1953-54 the Stats Government evolved a scheme for transferring some of the permanent members of the cadre of Judicial Officers to the Uttar Pradesh Civil Service (Judicial Branch) in public interest and in pursuance of that scheme the petitioner and Ors., who had teen confirmed as Judicial Officers, were asked to appear before the Public Service Commission, Allahabad. After the interview the Governor transferred the petitioner to the post of a Munsif in Uttar Pradesh Civil Service (Judicial Branch) on 8 October 1954. The petitioner was transferred to the post of a Munsif without any request on his part and in public interest. As the petitioner had put in seven years' service already as Judicial Magistrate, Judicial Officer, he made a representation, on 25 May 1955, to the State Government and pleaded that the entire length of his service from the date of his appointment as Judicial Magistrate should be taken into account in determining his seniority. No reply was received from the State Government and, therefore, the petitioner sent another representation on 18 February 1956 and specifically stated therein that in case the Government was unable to grant his request for being given seniority in the Provincial Civil Service (Judicial Branch) from the date of his appointment as Judicial Magistrate he may be reverted to his permanent post of a Judicial Officer. It seems the State Government wanted to be sure whether the petitioner would like to continue as Munsif or would like to revert to his substantive post of Judicial Officer and for that purpose the Assistant Registrar of this Court on 17 February 1956 wrote to the District Judge, Rae Bareli, where the petitioner was posted as a Munsif, to enquire from the petitioner whether he would like to revert to his substantive post of Judicial Officer and if so, his firm decision in the matter may be obtained and communicate to this Court for being forwarded to the State Government. A copy of this letter was sent to the petitioner also. Tue petitioner made a reply on 2 March 1956 to the District Judge and submitted that in case the Government did not give him any seniority he would like to -revert at once to his substantive post of Judicial Officer but if the Government granted the petitioner's request regarding seniority in the Uttar Pradesh Civil Service (Judicial Branch) from the data of his appointment as Judicial Officer he would continue on the judicial side. He also wrote that if the Government wanted to give him seniority for a lesser period those terms upon which he would be required to serve on the judicial side may be communicated to him and he shall then give his firm decision on the question of reversion to his permanent post. The petitioner requested the District Judge to forward the letter to the Deputy Registrar of this Court. The reply of the petitioner was forwarded to the State Government by the Registrar of this Court. Thereafter the Under Secretary to the State Government seat a letter on 14 May 1956 to the Registrar of this Court conveying the orders of the State Government in the case of eleven officers including the petitioner and mentioned therein that these officers have not yet given their firm decision in the matter on the ground that the question of seniority, which will be assigned to them in the Uttar Pradesh Civil Service (Judicial Branch) cadre, should be decided first and intimated to them. They would then give their final declaration. These officers may, therefore, be allowed to continue in their present appointments provisionally till the question of the seniority has been decided by Government. Copies of this letter were forwarded to the District Judge, Rae Bareli, and to the petitioner for information. By en order dated 3 November 1958, Sri P. C. Pandey, Up Sachiva to the State Government, informed the Registrar of this Court that the Governor has carefully considered the question of the assignment of seniority to the Judicial Officers appointed as temporary Munsifs during the years 1953 to 1955 in the gradation list of the Uttar Pradesh Civil Service (Judicial Branch) on their permanent absorption in that branch and having regard to the service rendered by those officers and in view of the fact that they did not apply for appointment as Munsifs of their own accord but were selected as such in public interest it has been decided that all the permanent Judicial Officers who have already been or may be absorbed permanently in the Uttar Pradesh Civil Service (Judicial Branch) should be given seniority of one year for every two years or part thereof of service rendered as permanent Judicial. Officer and their assumed date of appointment to the Uttar Pradesh Civil Service (Judicial Branch) should be worked out by antedating the date of taking over charge as Munsif by the number of years the benefit of which accrues to them in accordance with the aforesaid decision. The order also mentioned that order the assumed date has been worked out each of the officers should be placed below the regular batch of the Uttar Pradesh Civil Service (Judicial Branch) officers who joined the service in the year immediately preceding the year of the assumed data of such officers. The seniority inter se and vis-a-vis the other officers of tae Uttar Pradesh Civil Service (Judicial Branch) as worked out in accordance with the principles enunciated in the order dated 3 November 1958 was also mentioned in the order as follows: Name of the temporary Judicial Officerwho was selected as temporaryPlace Year of assignmentof seniority inthe gradation listof Uttar Pradesh Munsif Civil Service 1 Sri Mohan Chand Joshi ... (Judicial Branch) 1950 Below Sri Om Prakash of 1949 batch. 2 Sri Sajjan Lal Shah ... 1950 Below Sri M.C. Joshi. 3 Sri Prabhu Narain Rai ... 1951 Below Sri P.N. Dubey. 4 Sri Prem Shankar Shukla ... 1951 Below Sri P.N. Rai 5 Sri Gur Prasad Satsangi ... 1951 Below Sri P.S. Shukla. 6 Sri Ram Kishore Misra ... 1951 Below Sri G.P. Satsangi. 7 Sri Gyan Datta Chaturvedi ... 1952 Below Sri Ram Shakti Agarwal. 8 Sri Prem Ballabh Mashiwal ... 1952 Below Sri G.D. Chaturvedi 9 Sri Shri Krishna Prasad Joshi ... 1952 Below Sri P.B. Mashiwal. 10 Sri Rahas Bihari Lal ... 1953 Below Sri Om Prakash.
(3.) The Registrar of the Court was requested by the Up Sachiva to inform the officers concerned of the decision of the State Government and it was also said in the order that such of the officers who had not given a clear option for being absorbed permanently in the Uttar Pradesh Civil Service (Judicial Branch) pending a decision regarding the fixation of the seniority in that service may be asked to exercise their option "now" in writing and if they or any of them do not elect to be confirmed as Munsif, arrangements may by made to relieve them immediately under intimation to the Government so that their postings as Judicial Officers may be fixed up. Copies of the order dated 3 November 1958 were forwarded by the Assistant Registrar of this Court to the petitioner and the other officers concerned.;