Judgment

KHANNA, J.:- This appeal by special leave is directed against a Full Bench decision of the Allahabad High Court whereby petition under Art. 226 of the Constitution of India filed by the appellant was dismissed.

2. The appellant was appointed Traffic Manager in the transport organisation of the State of Uttar Pradesh on 21-7-1948. The office of Traffic Manager was subsequently designated as Assistant General Manager and the appellant continued to work as such. On 1-12-1955 the appellant was confirmed as Assistant General Manager with effect from April 1, 1955. On July 5, 1963 the appellant was appointed Officiating General Manager in the Gorakhpur region of the Transport Department. The appellant continued to officiate as General Manager of Government Roadways still September 7, 1967 when he was reverted to the post of Assistant General Manager. The appellant filed writ petition No. 3167 of 1967 in the Allahabad High Court challenging the order of his reversion but the same was summarily dismissed by a Division Bench of that Court as per order dated September 12, 1967. Representation was made by the appellant against the order of his reversion but the representation too was rejected by the State Government as per letter dated October 7, 1968. The writ petition which has given rise to this appeal was thereafter filed by the petitioner praying for quashing the order by which he had bee reverted from the post of Officiating General Manager to that of Assistant General Manager as well as the orders whereby his representation had been rejected.

3. A number of grounds were set out in the petition for assailing the impugned orders, but at the hearing of the appeal only one ground has been pressed and it is only that ground with which we are concerned. According to the appellant, the order of his reversion was by way of punishment and as it had been made without complying with the requirements of Article 311 of the Constitution, the same was liable to be quashed.

4. The petition was resisted by the State of Uttar Pradesh and the affidavit of Shri Bhagwan Sarup Saxena, Deputy Secretary to the Government in the Transport Department was filed in opposition to the petition. Objection was taken that the present petition was barred because of the dismissal of the earlier petition. On merits it was stated that the appellant was merely officiating as a General Manager and had no right to that post. According to the respondent-State, the appellant could be reverted to his substantive post of Assistant General Manager without the State taking any disciplinary action or assigning any reason.

5. When the petition came up for hearing before a single Judge, the learned Judge referred the matter to a larger Bench. Ultimately, the matter was heard by Full Bench of the High Court. The learned Judges held that the present petition was barred because of the dismissal of the appellant s earlier petition. On merits also, the learned Judges did not accept the contention advanced on behalf of the appellant and held that as he was only officiating as General Manger, he did not have any lien on that post. The reversion was held to be not by way of punishment. The Government, in the opinion of the High Court, was entitled in exercise of the power to revert a person who was officiating in a higher post Contention was also raised that the order of reversion was violative of the principles of natural justice but this contention was repelled. In the result the petition of the appellant was dismissed.

6. In appeal before us Mr. Gupte on behalf of the appellant has argued that as the previous petition No. 3167 of 1967 filed by the appellant had been dismissed summarily by means of a non-speaking order, it cannot be said that the dismissal of that petition was on merits. As such, according to the learned counsel, the present petition was not barred because of the dismissal of the previous petition. The second contention of Mr. Gupte is that the reversion of the app