Judgment

PALEKAR, J. :- These are appeals by certificate from an Order of the Punjab High Court (Circuit Bench at Delhi) dated 16-9-1964 in Civil Writ Nos. 244D to 250D of 1963 dismissing the petitions. The appellants prayed for a writ of mandamus directing the respondents, the Union of India and others, to recognize and declare the appointments of the appellants Income-tax Officers as having been made in class I grade II, instead of class II grade III; to frame a list of seniority accordingly and to grant the appellants all consequential reliefs following therein. Seven separate petitions were filed but the petitions were based on practically the same facts. It is sufficient, therefore, to refer to the facts in the first Civil Appeal No. 2395 of 1968 because a decision in that appeal will govern the other appeals.

2. The appellant Krishnaswamy was offered a post of an Income-tax Officer, class II, grade III in 1950 and on his acceptance of the same, he was appointed to the post in 1950. It appears that in 1945, Government had framed rules entitled the "Income-tax Officers (Class I, grade II) Service Recruitment Rules" for regulating recruitment to the said service 80% of the vacanci