Judgement

HEGDE, J:- These appeals by certificate raise two common questions of law for decision viz. whether the Government can by administrative instructions add to the conditions of service relating to the promotion of a Government servant, prescribed under Art, 309 of the Constitution add further whether such an addition requires the approval of the Central Government under S. 115 of the States Re-organization Act. 1956.

2. For deciding the two questions of law formulated earlier, it would be sufficient if we refer to the facts of any one of the aforementioned cases. Hence we shall refer to the facts in Civil Appeal No. 1639 of 1968.

3. Shamsher Jang Bahadur, the respondent in that appeal joined Government service as a clerk in the erstwhile Pepsu Secretarial on January 3, 1955. Pepsu State became a part of the State of Punjab on November 1, 1956 under the provisions of the State Re-organization Act, 1956. Shamsher Jang Bahadur was provisionally promoted as an Assistant on December 9, 1959 in the Punjab Civil Secretariat at Chandigarh. He was reverted as a clerk on February 3, 1960 on the ground that the failed to qualify the test prescribed under certain administrative instructio