S.S.Sandhawalia, J. - (1.) WHETHER the prescription of a written test by executive instruction, for the purpose of appointment to the posts of Assistant Food and Supplies Officers is violative of Rule 9(X) of the Punjab Food and Supplies Department (State Service Class III) Rules is the primary question which falls for determination in this writ petition admitted to a hearing by the Full Bench.
(2.) THE facts are not in dispute. The three Petitioners joined service as clerks in the Department in late fifties and were subsequently appointed as Junior Auditors on different dates and later were promoted as Assistants by the mid sixties. It is averred on their behalf that till the year 1968 there were no rules governing their conditions of service in the Food and Supplies Department and it was on the 9th of August, 1968, that the Governor of Punjab promulgated the Punjab Food and Supplies Department (State Service Class III) Rules, which were duly published in the" gazette (hereinafter called the Rules). Rule 9 prescribes the method of appointment to the different categories of posts within the department and in particular Clause (X) thereof relates to the mode of appointment in the case of Assistant Food and Supplies Officers. Further Sub -clause (iii) of the above -said provision lays down that 13 per cent of the posts would be filled by selection from amongst Assistants, Head Clerks, Stenographers, Junior Auditors who had worked in that capacity for a period of not less than three years in that Department. In accordance with Rule 11, the inter -se seniority of the Petitioners stands determined and the relevant extract from the Seniority List is annexure P. 1 to the writ petition. It is the case of the Petitioners that ever since the promulgation of the Rules the promotion from amongst Assistants, etc., (to which category the Petitioners belong) has always been on the basis of seniority -cum -merit and no written test has either been held or prescribed for the said purpose. It was primarily on the consideration of the service record, etc., that promotions had been made earlier. As an instance, it is pointed out that Bachittar Singh Petitioner was granted officiating promotion in July 1974, without any qualifying test but was subsequently reverted in October, 1974 on, account of lack of sanction by the Finance Department. Further it has been averred that persons already working as Assistant Food and Supplies Officers have been promoted from the numerous categories in the service without holding any competitive test whatsoever.
(3.) AT the material time as many as 18 posts were stated to have fallen to the share of the ministerial establishment, to which the Petitioners belong. It is their claim that a large number of persons who were similarly placed had already been promoted as Assistant Food and Supplies Officers without ever having been required to pass or qualify any written test. The names of 12 such persons have been specified in the writ petition and it is claimed that the prescription of the written test now after a period of nearly seven years from the promulgation of the Rules would operate unfairly against the Petitioners and would enable their juniors to steal a march over them.;