JUDGMENT

Santosh Hegde, J.-The State of Andhra Pradesh was formed w.e.f. 1.11.1956 by the integration of erstwhile State of Andhra and the erstwhile State of Hyderabad. The constitution of the new State of Andhra Pradesh with the merger of civil service belonging to the two erstwhile States paved way for disputes between the civil servants of the two merging States and the present appeals are a group of one such continuing dispute which has not yet found a solution. These appeals involve the claim of the Engineers belonging to the Departments of Public Works of the two States. The dispute in particular pertains to the retrospective regularisation of service of the Engineers belonging to the former State of Andhra in the cadre of Assistant Engineers/Supervisors etc. as also the equation of posts then existing in the said Engineering services of the two States. Dozens of petitions filed before the High Court and the Service Tribunal, and over half a dozen visits to this Court did not finally conclude the pending dispute between the parties. Consequently, the seniority/gradation list of these officers could not be finalised and the respective seniority of the officers remained nebulous. Ad hoc promotions given on the basis of various interim arrangements added to the heartburn of the officers. Thus, even after a lapse of over four decades, the officers concerned are in the portals of this Court. Though in their judgments the tribunals and the courts have repeatedly blamed the State and the Central Government for the delay in finalising the seniority/gradation list, fact still remains that every attempt to finalise such list, though belatedly, could not succeed because of the intervening judicial orders. The blame for this protracted litigation should be shared by everyone concerned equally. It will be our endeavour in these appeals to finalise all the pending disputes between this group of litigants once and for all.

2. For the purpose of disposal of these appeals, it may not be necessary for us to trace the history of this litigation in its entirety. Suffice it to say that on the formation of the new State of Andhra Pradesh, a number of Engineers who were then holding the post of Assistant Engineers/Supervisors temporarily stood transferred to the new State. It is the contention of the Engineers from the erstwhile State of Andhra that though they were regularly appointed to clear vacancies, orders as to their regular appointment were delayed by the Administration due to administrative exigencies and for no fault of theirs, hence ultimately when their services were regularised, they were entitled to count their seniority in the initial grade from the date of their original appointment and consequently in the promoted cadres also. While the Engineers of the erstwhile Hyderabad State (to be called Telangana Engineers ) contend that these Engineers of Andhra were never appointed regularly, their appointments were temporary and fortuitous, hence they were not entitled to count their seniority on the basis of their initial service i.e. on the basis of their date of initial appointment and their seniority could be counted only from the date from which their services were regularised by the successor State, and also it was the contention of the Telangana Engineers that the post of Sub-Engineer in the erstwhile State of Hyderabad is equivalent to the post of Assistant Engineer of Andhra.

3. The State of Andhra Pradesh and the Union of India took different decisions at different stages and ultimately in the course of the litigation, the matter came up before this Court when the aggrieved party challenged the order of the tribunal dated 27.6.1980, and this Court as per its decision dated 5.2.1981 gave the following directions :

"(1) The Central Government will consider the rival contention of Andhra Officers and Telangana Officers to whether the services of the Andhra Officers were on stop-gap and fortuitous arrangements.

(2) The Central G