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 nebulou