TMI Blog1993 (11) TMI 253X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... titions before the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court. A Division Bench of the High Court allowed the bunch-petitions by its judgment dated August 3, 1984 and quashed the select list notified by the office memorandum dated November 5, 1983. These appeals and the connected matters are directed against the judgment of the High Court. 2. We may briefly notice the facts necessary to resolve the controversy. Building and Roads, Electrical, and Mechanical are the three branches of the Public Works Department to which the Junior Engineers and the Assistant Engineers are appointed. There are no statutory service rules regulating the recruitment and conditions of service of persons appointed to the Electrical and Mechanical branches. However, the Building and Roads branch governed by the rules called The United Provinces Service of Engineers (building and roads branch) Class II Rules, 1936 (the 1936 rules) framed under the Government of India Act, 1935. It is not disputed that the 1936 rules, though not applicable in terms to Electrical and Mechanical branches, have always been applied mutatis mutandis to these branches as well. The 1936 rules lay down three eligibility - conditio ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... f Junior Engineer to the post of Assistant Engineer ; (1) The candidate should be confirmed (Permanent) on the post of Junior Engineer. (2) The candidate should be A.M.I.E./B.E. or have passed the qualifying examination laid down by the Government. (3) The candidate should have ten years experience of service on the post of Junior Engineer. The Government after consulting other Engineering Departments and the Public Service Commission decided on 13.4.1978 after promotion to amend the above formula. The amended formula is as follows: (1) Against the 25% posts reserved for promotion, half of them would be filled by promoting those Junior Engineers who are A.M.I.E./B.E. or have passed the prescribed qualifying examination. While the remaining half, as well as those vacancies which cannot be filled from among A.M.I.E./B.E. or qualifying examination passed Junior Engineers for want of such candidates being available, shall be filled by other Junior Engineers who are neither A.M.I.E./B.E., nor have passed qualifying examination. (2) These Candidates who are not A.M.I.E/B.E. nor have passed qualifying examination or should have seven years' experience on the post of ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... m the eligibility list. According to them all those Junior Engineers who had completed seven years of service, as laid-down in the memorandum, were eligible to be considered for selection to the post of Assistant Engineer. The High Court by an interim order permitted more than 100 candidates, who were not in the eligibility list, to be interviewed by the Selection Committee subject to the final result of the writ petitions. The list of selected candidates was notified by the government on November 7, 1983. Thereafter large number of Junior Engineers who were officiating as Assistant Engineers on ad-hoc basis were ordered to be reverted to accommodate the Junior Engineers who were selected. The reversion orders were challenged before the High Court by way of several writ petitions. The High Court stayed the reversions and further stayed appointments from the select list. On February 28, 1984 the High Court permitted ad-hoc promotions to be made on the basis of seniority subject to rejection of the unfit. 7. The contention of the writ petitioners before the High Court was that there being no statutory service rules applicable to the Electrical and Mechanical branches of the Public ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... to the post of Assistant Engineer was ten years service as Junior Engineer. Neither the memorandum nor any other Government order has specifically modified or amended the Government order dated December 3, 1964. Even otherwise a bare look at the contents of the memorandum shows that it contained a policy decision of the Government which was to be implemented in the future. The memorandum did not state that it was applicable to the Electrical and Mechanical branches. Para 5 therein stated that provisions shall be made in accordance with the above said decision in the service rules . Admittedly, there were no service rules regarding Electrical and Mechanical branches. It can, therefore, be legitimately inferred that the memorandum was meant only for the Building and Roads branch which was governed by the 1936 rules. Even if it is assumed that the memorandum was meant for all the three branches, it could not operate in respect of Building and Roads branch till that time the 1936 rules were amended and since the Government was uniformly applying the 1936 rules to all the three branches, the memorandum could not be read to be applicable to the Electrical and Mechanical branches. 11 ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... amongst the Junior Engineers. The memorandum has not been expressed in the name of the Governor nor does it even state that it has been issued by an order of the Government. Indeed it expressly asks the concerned, instrumentalities and authorities of the Government to make provision for amending the service rules so as to bring them in line with the policy decisions of the Government. We agree with the above quoted reasoning of the High Court in Gopal Krishna Goel's case. 13. This Court during the pendency of these matters stayed the operation of the impugned judgment of the High Court, and also stayed all reversions. 12 posts were permitted to be filled by the State Government and the State Government was allowed to make ad hoc appointments by following the rule of seniority subject to unfitness. 14. As a result of the above discussion we allow the appeals and set aside the impugned judgment of the High Court. We order as under: 1. The selection made by the State Government in the year 1983 was in accordance with law and as such is upheld. The select list notified in the memorandum dated November 5, 1983 is declared valid and operative. 2. All the selected cand ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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