Rajendra Nath Mittal, J. - (1.) This judgment will dispose of Civil Writ Petition Nos. 2275, 2 4u, 016 of 1969 and 643 of 1970, which involve similar questions of law. The facts in the judgment are being given from C.W.P. No. 2275 of 1969.
(2.) Briefly, the case of the petitioners is that the Punjab Public Service Commission (hereinafter referred to as "the Commission") held a competition in May, 1956 for selection of 5 Class I and 4 Class II Officers in P W D. Irrigation Branch. The petitioners appeared in the competition and were selected. They joined P .S.E. Class I as Assistant Engineers on Dec. 1, 1956, Jan. 15, 1957 and Nov. 30, 1956, respectively Two of the petitioners, namely Mr. K B. Vig and Mr. B.C. Malhotra were temporary Engineers of the department since 1952. It is alleged that quite a number of temporary Engineers belonging to the 1949 batch and onwards took the competition and 8 out of 9 finally taken were Departmental Engineer. Mr. K. K Malhotra (now serving in Punjab) and Mr Avtar Singh were originally selected in Class II service but were taken in Class I in 1957 as to non-departmental candidates selected for Class I declined the offer. The appointments of the petitioners were made under the Punjab Service of Engineers Class C, Public Works Department (Irrigation Branch), Service Rules, 1956 (hereinafter referred to as the 1956 Rules), it is alleged that the petitioners thus became members of the service from the date of their joining service. Respondent Nos. 2 to 5 and 7 to 11 and their batch- mates now allocated to Punjab were temporary Engineers in the department at that time.
(3.) On Oct. 22, 1956, the cadre strength was 73, including 26 posts of Assistant Executive Engineers. It was increased to 81 posts on Nov. 1, 1956 with the merger of Pepsu with Punjab. It was further increased to 152 posts vide Government letter dated April 15, 1960. However, the order was to take effect retrospectively from March 1, 1960. Thus 71 additional posts were made available with effect from March 1, 1960. It is alleged that while filling these additional posts, the Government totally ignored the provisions of the Rules and the quota fixed for direct recruits was not given to them. It is further alleged that the petitioners were not promoted substantively in the senior scale though they had been the members of the service since 1956 and instead the respondents along with others had been given Class I Junior Scale on March 1, 1960 and about 19 Officers upto respondent No. 2, Shri D. V. Gulati were given Class I Senior Scale on the same day. The petitioners have next averred that by mis-interpreting Rule 15 the promoted officers had been given undue benefit and made senior to the petitioners.;