JUDGMENT

V.N. Khare, CJI.-Validity of Section 2 of the Orissa Administrative Service, Class - II Appointment of Officers Validation) Amendment Act, 1992 (hereinafter referred to as the Act ) is in question in this writ petition and appeal. The appeal arises out of a judgment and order dated 23.4.1991 passed by the Orissa Administrative Tribunal at Bhubaneswar in Transferred, Application No. 402 of 1986. In the said application, the appellants herein, inter alia, prayed for a direction upon Respondent Nos. 1 to 3 to fix their seniority by placing them above the private respondents and grant consequential career benefits to them. In the writ petition also, the petitioners have prayed for quashing of the Orissa Administrative Service Class II (Appointment of Officers Validation) Amendment Ordinance, 1992, which is subsequently replaced by the Act, as also for a declaration that the said Ordinance (Act) is inapplicable in the case of the petitioners and in any event the same cannot be applied retrospectively.

2. The basic dispute between the parties revolves round the concept of year of allotment as envisaged in the Act. The question came up for consideration before the Full Bench of t