R.S. Mongia, J. - (1.) THIS judgment of ours shall dispose of Letters Patent Appeals No. 303 of 1984, 259 and 295 of 1986.
(2.) LETTERS Patent Appeal No. 303 of 1984 is against the judgment of the learned Single Judge in C.W.P. No. 4553 of 1978. decided on 14th December. 1983: whereas the other two Letters Patent Anneals are against the judgment of the learned Single Judge in C.W.P. No. 2485 of 1983. decided on 6th February, 1986, which have been filed separately by the two writ -Petitioners in this case. At the outset it may be mentioned that the learned Single Judge in C.W.P. No. 2485 of 1983. had followed the judgment of the learned Single Judge in C.W.P. No. 4553 of 1978 and that is why all the three Letters Patent Appeals are being disposed of by this Judgment. For facility of reference the facts as given in C.W.P. No. 4553 of 1978, against which L.P.A. No. 303 of 1984 has arisen, are being mentioned. The Petitioners (now Appellants) were all members of the Punjab Service of Engineers Class II and were governed by the Service Rules known as Punjab Service of Engineers Class II (Irrigation Branch) Rules, 1941 (hereinafter called the Class II Rules), Rule 4 of the Class II Rules gives the constitution of the Service, which is reproduced below:
(3.) CONSTITUTION of the Service, -The Service shall consist of: (a) Existing members of the service. (b) Officers transferred or promoted from another provincial service, whether in the same of another province, or promoted from the Overseers Engineering Service, Irrigation Branch Punjab of Temporary Engineers taken into the service. (c) Officers directly appointed by Government. Rule 9 of the Class II Rules provides as to how the seniority of the members of the Service is to be determined. The same is Reproduced below: 9. Seniority of members of the Service. -Seniority of members of the Service shall be determined in accordance with the order of their appointment to the service. Provided that - (i) If two or more members are appointed on the same date, the order of seniority among them will be according to age, subject to provision that if before promotion they were members of the same service their seniority will be the same as in the service from which they were promoted. By administrative instructions issued from time to time, the State Government prescribed quota of the various sources as indicated by Rule 4(b) ibid. The latest instructions on the point as mentioned in the writ petition, were of 4th May, 1972. which provided for filling of a Class II post as under: (1) Temporary Engineers 65 per cent (2) By promotion from members of Overseers Service (Civil & Mechanical) 22 per cent (18 per cent Civil and 4 per cent Mechanical) (3) By promotion from Circle Head Draftsman belonging to Draftsmen Tracers Service Class III, P.W.D. (I.E.). (4) By promotion from members of Overseers Engineering Service and Draftsmen & Tracers Class III passing qualification of AMIE or its equivalent. 4. The Petitioners were promoted and appointed to P.S.E. Class II from sources mentioned at Serial Nos. 2, 3 and 4 above. All the Respondent belonged to the category of Temporary Engineers (i.e., service) before they were taken into Class II service.;