Judgment

Srinivasan, J.-Leave granted in all the S.L.Ps.

The phoenix has risen again. Admittedly this is the fourth round of litigation in the dispute which germinated about three decades and three years ago between two groups of employees in Karnataka Adminis­trative Service. One group comprises persons directly recruited as Assistant Commissioners in Group ‘A’ (junior scale) while the other consists of Tehsildars promoted as Assistant Commissioners. This matter came to this Court on three occasions and the relevant Rules were considered elaborately and interpreted on two of them. The histo­ry of the Rules governing the service need not be repeated here as it has been set out in detail in the previous rulings.

2. The Government of Mysore published a gradation list prepared as on January 1, 1972 by a notification dated January 13, 1972 fixing the seniority of the Assistant Commissioners. The same was challenged in V.B. Badami v. State of Mysore1. Before this Court as many as six contentions were urged, the first of them being that the quota rule applied to vacancies in all posts whether permanent or temporary. All the six contentions were rejected. While dealing with the first con­t