B.R. Tuli, J. - (1.) THIS judgment will dispose of C.W. 2345 of 1966 Nagin Singh Grewal v. State of Punjab and others and C.W. 762 of 1967, Partap Singh Satnam v. State of Punjab and others. as both of them relate to the seniority of the petitioners quo the respondents, and all of them are the employees of the Punjab State Electricity Board.
(2.) NAGIN Singh Grewal, petitioner in C.W. 2345 of 1966, obtained a degree of B. Sc. Electrical ) Engineering from the Punjab Engineering College, Roorkee (U.P.) in the year 1951. His appointment order shows that he had been sent to that College by the Pepsu Government as its nominee. He was appointed "as a temporary Assistant Engineer in the Public Works Department for a period of 6 months or till selection of a suitable candidate is made by the Public Service Commission, whichever is earlier, with effect from the date of his taking over." This order was issued on April 24, 1953, and the petitioner joined service on April 27, 1953 It has been stated in the return filed by the Punjab State Electricity Board that the petitioner's temporary appointment was renewed from time to time, the last renewal being up to February 28, 1957. He was confirmed on the cadre of Pepsu Engineering Service Class II with effect from October 25, 1956. Against this confirmation, the petitioner made no representation and on its basis he was integrated in the service of the new State of Punjab which was formed as a result of the merger of the States of Punjab and Pepsu with effect from November 1, 1956. Partap Singh Satnam, petitioner in C.W. 762 of 1967, obtained a degree of Bachelor of Science (Electrical and Mechanical Engineering) from the Banaras Hindu University, Benaras in 1951, and was appointed as a temporary Assistant Engineer in Pepsu Public Works Department, Electrical and Mechanical Branch in the time -scale of Rs. 250 -25 -550/25 -750, and he joined duty on August 12, 1952. By an order dated September 10, 1956, Kirpal Singh, officiating Sub Divisional Officer, was confirmed as Assistant Engineer (Electrical and Mechanical) against one of the existing vacancies in the cadre of Pepsu Engineering Service Class II with effect from that date. Against that confirmation, the petitioner filed a representation on September 22, 1956, claiming that he should have been confirmed earlier than Kirpal Singh. As a result of his representation, he was confirmed by an order dated October 25, 1956, along with some other temporary Assistant Engineers, who petitioner again represented against the date of his confirmation Which was revised to August 2, 1954, on which date a vacancy in the permanent strength of the cadre had occurred. By notification dated October 25, 1956, the date of confirmation of Kirpal Singh was fixed as March 27, 1954, when an earlier vacancy in the permanent strength of the cadre had occurred. According to the petitioner, he filed a representation against the earlier confirmation of Kirpal Singh on October 30, 1956, but it was never decided According to the Punjab State Electricity Board, this representation is not to be found on the records and the petitioner has not filed a copy of that representation. It has, therefore, to be ignored. He was integrated in the service of the new State of Punjab, which came into being after the merger of the two former States of Punjab and Pepsu with effect from November 1, 1956, on the basis of his date of confirmation being August 2, 1954.
(3.) A joint seniority list for the purposes of integration of the Services of the two States was issued by the Punjab State in 1958 and against their placements in that list, the petitioners filed representations. Before those representations could be decided, the Punjab State Electricity board was formed and the petitioners were allocated to that Board along with other personnel of the Electricity Department of the Punjab Government, Their representations along with the representations of other officers were placed for decision before the Government of India in accordance with the provisions of the States Re -organisation Act, 1956, and a copy of U.O. No. 3004 -Integ.63, dated June 5, 1963. from the Secretary to Government, Punjab, Integration Department to the Secretary to Government, Punjab, Irrigation and Power departments (Electricity Branch), shows that those representations were considered by the Government of India on the advice of the Central Advisory Committee and it was decided that the same should be considered and disposed of by the State Government as the claims related to the parent State seniority. Accordingly, the representations of the petitioners along with the representation of Kirpal Singh, respondent, were returned to the Electricity Branch of the Punjab Government, Irrigation and Power Department, for disposal by the Head of the Department/Administrative Department themselves. The representation of the petitioners were considered by the Punjab State Electricity Board and were rejected in July and August, 1966. The petitioners then filed the present petitions to which written statements have been filed by various respondents.;