JUDGMENT

CHINNAPPA REDDY, J.:— In these appeals we have once again to consider career conscious competing claims to seniority which appear so much to dominate the lives and careers of our Civil Servants that a large bulk of the cases in this Court relate to the resolution of problems arising out of such claims. So much of our time is taken up in discovering the precise facts of these intricate problems that we wonder whether the Constitution of a fact-finding administrative tribunal who should invariably be approached in the first instance will not better serve the cause of successful administration. An administrative tribunal possessing the necessary expertise and familiarity with administrative procedures and rules may be able to deal with the problems in a satisfactory way. At least the facts will be found and the relevant rules will be known. Thereafter aggrieved parties may approach the Courts for further relief within the confines of Article 226 and 32 of the Constitution.

2. On selection by the Punjab Public Service Commission, B. R. Kapur and Harjeet Singh were directly recruited in 1951, as Deputy Superintendents of Police in the Punjab Police Service. They are the appellants in Civil Appeals Nos. 2413 of 1978 and 2526 of 1977 respectively. B. R. Kapur was senior to Harjeet Singh as Deputy Superintendent of Police. In 1960 both of them were included in the Select List prepared under Regulation 7 of the Indian Police Service (Appointment by Promotion) Regulations, 1955. On November 24, 1960. B. R. Kapur was appointed as Assistant Inspector General of Police which post was a cadre post. In May, 1961, B. R. Kapur was appointed as Director of Sports and Youth Programme and Deputy Secretary to Government, Sports Department. The post was a non-cadre post. He held this post up to November 18, 1962 and thereafter he was appointed as Additional Controller of Stores, Punjab which was also a non-cadre post. He continued to hold the post of Additional Controller of Stores till 1965. From July 19, 1965, he was Commandant, 40th Battalion, PAP, J & K. which was a cadre post. He held the post till July 11, 1966, when he took over as Commandant of 25th Battalion, PAA. On the reorganisation of the State of Punjab, he was appointed as Assistant Inspector General of Police, State of Punjab from November 1, 1966. Thereafter he continuously held cadre posts and was finally appointed to the Indian Police Service with effect from September 3, 1969.

3. Shri Harjeet Singh was appointed to officiate as Superintendent of Police in December, 1960. The post was a cadre post. He continued to hold a cadre post till he was appointed to the Indian Police Service with effect from September 3, 1969. After the two officers were appointed to the Indian Police Service the question of assignment of year of allotment and fixation of seniority arose for the consideration of the Government of India. Shri B. R. Kapur was allotted to the year 1963 and placed below Suba Singh and above Shri S. R. Sharma (direct recruits) in the Indian Police Service Gradation List of Punjab. The period of his service as Director of Sports and Youth Programme and as Additional Controller of Stores was not taken into consideration as both the posts were non-cadre posts. His service as Commandant of 25th Battalion was also not taken into account on the ground that the 25th Battalion had been taken over by the Government of India and therefore the post of Commandant of the 25th Battalion was a non-cadre post. He was, therefore, treated as having continuously officiated in a senior cadre post from November 1, 1966 only. On that basis he was allotted to the year 1963. In the case of Harjeet Singh, though admittedly he officiated continuously in a senior cadre post from December, 1960 he was also allotted to the year 1963 and placed below Shri B. R. Kapur on the ground that he ranked below Shri B. R. Kapur in the select list.

4. B. R. Kapur and Harjeet Singh filed Writ Petitions in the Hig