Judgment

B. K. MUKHERJEA, J. : This appeal, which has come before us on special leave obtained by the plaintiff appellant, is directed against a judgment of a Letter Patent Bench of the High Court of Punjab dated the 10th July 1952, reversing, on appeal, a decision of a single Judge of that Court passed in Second Appeal No. 884 of 1950.

2. The suit, out of which the appeal arises, was commenced by the plaintiff, in the Court of the Subordinate Judge at Ambala for a declaration that the order passed by the Government of India, which is the defendant in the suit, retiring the plaintiff from his service was wrongful, void and inoperative and that the plaintiff should be deemed to continue still in the service of the defendant.

The material facts, which are for the most part uncontroverted, may be shortly narrated as follows:

The plaintiff entered the service of the Government of India as a clerk in the Central Research Institute at Kasauli on the 7th of May, 1912. Under Rule 56 (b) (i) of Chapter IX of the Fundamental Rules, which regulate the civil services, a ministerial servant may be required to retire at the age of 55 but should ordinarily be retained in service if he continues effi