D.S. Tewatia, J. - (1.) THESE five writ petitions, three of them by the employees of the Co -operative Department of the Punjab State, namely, R.C. Chaudhri and others in C.W.P. No. 1219 of 1984, Kartar Singh and others in C.W.P. No. 2786 of 1982, and S.S. Paul and others in C.W.P. No. 71 of 1984, and two by the employees of the Co -operative Department of the Haryana State, namely, M.S. Sheokand and others in C.W.P. No. 3899 of 1983 and S.P. Kaushik and another in C.W.P. No. 3438 of 1983, raise a common question of law relating to the interpretation of some of the rules, particularly the rule relating to the seniority, of the Punjab State Co -operative Service (Class II) Rules, 1958 (hereinafter referred to as the Rules), which are common to all the Petitioners and, therefore, a common judgment is proposed in all these cases.
(2.) WHEREVER reference to facts is necessary, these are taken from Civil Writ No. 1219 of 1984. The controversy in these writ petitions revolves round the fixation of seniority of the Assistant Registrars drawn from two sources, namely, by way of direct recruitment and by way of promotion. To be specific, the controversy lies in a narrow compass. The promotee officers assert that confirmation in the service should be on the basis of continuous length of officiating on the post irrespective of the fact as to whether appointee to the post of Assistant Registrar is a direct recruit or a promotee, whereas the stand taken on behalf of the direct appointees and the State Government is that the ratio of the direct recruits and promotees to the post of the Assistant Registrar is not only to be maintained at the time of recruitment, but is also to be reflected all through, that is even at the time of confirmation in the service as an Assistant Registrar. The confirmation has to be effected if a post in the quota of the given source is available for confirmation, that is the confirmation of the promotees is to be confined to the post available in their quota and likewise the confirmation of the direct recruits to be confined to the post available in their quota.
(3.) THE promotee officers have additionally canvassed that even if for the sake of arguments it is assumed that confirmation is to be effected if a vacant post within the quota of the posts reserved for the given source is available, the said rule is not to be followed as there had been large scale deviation from the quota rule at the time of recruitment and it would be iniquitous to follow quota rule at the time of confirmation.;