Judgement

HEGDE, J.:- The questions of law to be decided in these appeals by certificate, arising from two writ petitions filed by some of the respondents in these appeals in the High Court of Punjab and Haryana, are more or less similar to those which we have decided in Civil Appeals Nos. 1639-1641 of 1968, 31, 1279 and 2227 of 1969.

2. For deciding those questions it is sufficient if we refer to the case of the writ petitioner Madan Singh. Before doing so it is necessary to refer to the reliefs asked for by the writ petitioners. They had prayed for issuance of a proper writ, order or direction to annual the executive instructions by which the Government of Punjab in 1950 prescribed a departmental test as a condition precedent for considering the promotion of clerks to the post of Assistants, as according to the writ petitioners those instructions were not based on any authority of law. They had also asked for consequential direction to the state of Punjab to re-determine the seniority of the petitioners on the basis of Financial Commissioners (Punjab ) Subordinate Service Rules, 1943 (to be hereinafter referred to as the Rules) framed under S. 241 of the Government of India Act, 1