M L CHOPRA Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This judgment will dispose of Civil Writ No. 1068 of 1966 (M.L. Chopra V/s. Union of India) and Civil Writ No, 1114 of 1966 (Wazir Chand V/s. Union of India).

(2.) Posts of luggage Guards in the Northern Railway were abolished on and with effect from the 1st of January, 1949. The petitioner was working as a Guard on that day, but the parties are not entirely agreed on the issue whether he was working as "Luggage Guard" on that precise day or not. He was declared medically unfit on February 6, 1950 on account of defective vision. With effect from March 15, 1950, he was absorbed as Brakeman in the lower scale of Rs. 60-80. As a Guard he had been in the time scale of pay of Rs. 60-170. This reduction in his rank is said to have been authorised by the Railway statutory rules. On September 1, 1950, the President of India passed an order (Annexure 'A' to Wazir Chand's petition), whereby two directions were given, viz.

(3.) It transpires from the above order of the Divisional Personnel Officer, who was admittedly competent to decide the matter, that he did not pass and provisional order, but only left the verification of the figures to the Divisional Accounts Officer, and finally decided the issue of fact on which basis he gave the protection envisaged in the railway Board's letter to Madan Lal petitioner.