Judgment

SHELAT, J.-On August 14, 1970, we pronounced our order dismissing these three appeals with costs stating at the time that our reasons for the same would follow. The order was pronounced at the request of the appellant who desired that we should do so before August 15, 1970, when he was completing 58 years of his age. Accordingly we are now setting out the reasons for the said order.

2. The three appeals, by certificate, question the validity of two confidential reports for the years 1964 and 1965 made against the appellant by the reporting and the reviewing officers in the Central Water and Power Commission (Power Wing) and the order, dated May 12, 1967, by which the appellant was compulsorily retired on his attaining the age of 55 years.

3. The appellant, an electrical engineer, began his career in the Simla Electricity Supply Undertaking and worked there from 1934 to 1949. In 1949, he was appointed as a Project Officer in the Central Electricity Commission, now designated the Central Water and Power Commission (Power Wing). He was confirmed in that post in 1950 and later on was promoted to the post of a Director, in which post he was working since 1955. He was confirmed in