Judgment

JAGANMOHAN REDDY, J. : - This petition is the second round in the challenge of the initial recruitment to the Indian Forest Service from amongst the gazetted officers of the Forest Service of each State. By Section 2 of the All India Services Act, LXI of 1951 - hereinafter called the Act , the Indian Administrative Service and the Indian Police Service, which were constituted before the Act, were recognised as All-India Services. Subsequently by the All India Services (Amendment) Act, 1963, enacted on September 6, 1963 Section 2-A was added providing for constitution of three other All India Services of which the Indian Forest Service was one. Section 3 of the Act dealt with the regulation of recruitment and conditions of service. It provided:

"(1) The Central Government may after consultation with the governments of the States concerned including the State of Jammu and Kashmir, make rules for the regulation of recruitment, and the conditions of service of persons appointed, to an All India Service.

(2) All rules made under this section shall be laid for not less than fourteen days before Parliament as soon as possible after they are made, and shall be subject to such modifications, whether by way of repeal or amendment, as Parliament may make on a motion made during the session in which they are so laid."

Section 4 of the Act dealt with continuance of existing rules which Prior to the Act were applicable to an All India Service and those rules were deemed to be rules made under the Act.

2. In order to constitute and bring into being the All India Forest Service the Central Government issued a notification dated July 1, 1966 under Section 2-A of the Act and immediately thereafter in exercise of the powers conferred by subsection (1) of S. 3 of the Act made certain Rules, namely, the Indian Forest Service (Cadre) Rules, 1966 - hereinafter referred to as "the Cadre Rules", and the Indian Forest Service (Recruitment) Rules, 19 - hereinafter referred to as "the Recruitment Rules". By Rule 3 of the Cadre Rules the Indian Forest Service Cadre was constituted for each State or group of States and the cadre so constituted was to be referred as a "State Cadre", or, as the case may, a "Joint Cadre". The strength and composition of each of the cadres was dealt with by Rule 4 of the Cadre Rules under which the strength and composition of each of the cadres constituted under Rule 3 was to be determined by regulations made by the Central Government in consultation with the State Governments in that behalf. Sub-rule (2) of Rule 4 of the Cadre Rules further provided that the Central Government shall, at the interval of every three years, re-examine the strength and composition of each such cadre in consultation with the State Government concerned and may make such alterations therein as it deems fit. There are also two provisos to the rule by and under which the Central Government had the power to alter the strength and composition of any cadre at any other time and similarly the State Government we also empowered to add for a period not exceeding one year, and with the approval of the Central Government for a further period not exceeding two years, to a State or Joint Cadre one or more posts carrying duties or responsibilities of a like nature to cadre posts. Rule 5 provided for the allocation of members to various cadres by the Central Government m consultation with the State Government concerned. It also empowered the Central Government, with the concurrence of the State Government concerned, to transfer a cadre officer from one cadre to another cadre. In exercise of the powers conferred by sub-rule (1) of Rule 4 of the Cadre Rules, the Central Government, in consultation with the State Governments, framed the Indian Forest Service (Fixation of Cadre Strength) Regulations, 1966, fixing the strength and composition of the cadres of the Indian Forest Service in each of the States as specified in the Schedule annexed thereto, with effect