JUDGMENT

KRISHNA IYER, J.:— Competitive claims to seniority, dependent on the year of allotment in the Indian Police Service, fall for consideration in this appeal by special leave. We have expedited the hearing of the case since keeping officers in an unsettled state may be a factor which impairs their efficiency.

2. One Shri Ahluwalia, a senior member of the Indian Police Service, sought to quash the decision of the Union of India dated 26-6-1976, whereby his year of allotment was fixed as 1965. According to his case, the correct year of allotment should have been 1961. If his plea were granted, the present appellants would be affected by being made junior to him. The rival contentions revolve round a few facts, which we will set out, and a few rules framed under the All India Services Act, 1951, which we will construe. First a rush through the relevant calendar of dates. Concerned, as we are, with the year of allotment of Shri Ahluwalia (respondent No. 4), let us focus on the chronology of events with special reference to him. If his claim were untenable, the appeal must be allowed and vice versa.

3. The 4th respondent (Ahluwalia) became a Deputy Superintendent of Police in Himachal Pradesh (which was then a Union Territory) by the end of 1956. In 1962, the Central Government constituted a common police service for the Union Territory of Delhi and Himachal Pradesh called the Delhi and Himachal Pradesh Police Service and later, in 1964, respondent No. 4 was absorbed into that service on a regular basis. The usual avenue of promotion for a Deputy Superintendent of Police is the post of Superintendent of Police, but Superintendents of Police are borne on the cadre of the Indian Police Service and the exercise which results in the inclusion in the Indian Police Service is governed by the Indian Police Service (Appointment by Promotion) Regulations, 1955 framed under Section 3 (4) of the All India Services Act, 1951. The first step is to prepare a Select List from among eligible officers of the State concerned, in the present case, the Union Territories of Delhi and Himachal Pradesh. Sometimes, it happens that although the post of a Superintendent of Police is a cadre post, if no hands are readily available for being posted from the I.P.S., Deputy Superintendent of Police from the Select List is promoted provisionally subject to certain formalities which we will presently consider. The 4th respondent (Ahluwalia) was brought into the Select List in 1965 and later appointed Superintendent of Police in October, 1965 and he worked as Superintendent of Police in one place or other, until December, 1967, and, even thereafter, he continued as Superintendent of Police right down to January 1971 when on January 30, 1971, he was appointed to the I.P.S. and confirmed as such. The year of allotment was fixed as 1965 but the 4th respondent had a case that the law and justice of the case entitled him to 1961 as year of allotment. So he challenged the order of the Central Government allotting him the year 1965. The High Court considered the matter with reference to the relevant rules and came to the conclusion that there was merit in the 4th respondents contention. (He was the petitioner before the High Court). The learned Judges wound up thus :

"It is, therefore, evident that the period of officiation of the petitioner during 1-8-1968 to 12-10-1969 could not be considered to be invalid or irregular on any such ground.

We, therefore, conclude that the Government of India wrongly decided that the officiation of the petitioner between the period 1-1-1968 and 12-1-1971 or during the period 1-8-1968 to 12-10-1969 could not be considered valid officiation. Rather he was continuously holding a cadre post throughout this period, and the benefit regarding seniority will have to be given for the entire period. The decision being wrong and invalid under the very Rules and Regulations applied by the Government, was subsequently set right by them under Annexu