Judgment

Srinivasan, J.-There are nine petitioners in the earlier writ peti­tion and one petitioner in the later writ petition. They were appoint­ed by the first respondent as General Duty Medical Officer Grade II between 1982 and 1985. The first petitioner in the Civil Writ Petition 60 of 1994 and petitioner in Writ Petition No. 8 of 1997 were appoint­ed in 1982. Petitioners 2 and 3 in the earlier writ petition were appointed in 1983. Petitioners 4 and 5 were appointed in 1984 whereas petitioners 6 to 9 were appointed in 1985. It is not in dispute that all of them were appointed on purely ad hoc basis on the same terms and conditions. In the appointment orders, Clause 1 stated that the appointment would be purely on an ad hoc basis as a stop gap arrange­ment for a period of six months or till such time the posts were filled up on regular basis through Union Public Service Commission (for short ‘UPSC’) or till further orders whichever was earlier. Clause 2 provided that the ad hoc appointments could be terminated at any time by the competent authority without assigning any reason whatsoever and without giving any prior notice. According to Clause 3, the appoint­ment will not confer