JUDGMENT

K. RAMASWAMY, J.:— The special leave to appeal is granted.

2. These appeals and the writ petition were heard elaborately along with Civil Appell No.4094 of 1984 on merits. Since same controversy, as involved in Civil Appeal No. 2316 of 1986, we are disposing of both the appeals and writ petition by a common order.

3. The appellants are Class II engineers in the Haryana Service of Engineers (Public Health Branch). They were promoted to officiate as Executive Engineers under the Punjab Service of Engineers, Class I, P.W.D. (Public Health Branch) Rules, 1961 made by the Governor in exercise of the powers under the proviso to Art. 309 of the Constitution. After the formation of State of Haryana, the service was known as the Haryana Public Service of Engineers, Class I, P.W.D. (Public Health Branch) with effect from November 1, 1966. The rules are called for short the rules. The service under the rules consists of Asstt. Executive Engineer, Executive Engineer, Superintending Engineer and Chief Engineer. The State Government exercised its power under Rule 22 and relaxed the qualification of 5 years length of service and promoted the appellants and S. L. Chopra as Executive Engineers on February 21, 1972, B. R. Batra on July 29, 1971 and 0. P. Juneja on February 16, 1972. The respondent B. D. Sardana was recruited as Asstt. Executive Engineer by direct recruitment to Class I Service of Junior scale and was appointed with effect from December 7, 1977. The State Government relaxed part of his probationary period and promoted him also as Executive Engineer Mr. B. R. Batra filed a writ petition under Art. 32 challenging the promotion of Sardana as Executive Engineer and also the State Govt.s power to grant relaxation and fixing his seniority as Executive Engineer. He further challenged the promotion of Sardana as Superintending Engineer by order dated July 29, 1982 on the plea that it violated his fundamental rights under Arts. 14 and 16. The appellants, namely, Sardar Pratap Singh, K. C. Sehgal and Sardar Bhupinder Singh in Civil Appeal No. 2316 of 1986 are Class II officers promoted on officiating basis as Executive Engineers in Senior scale with effect from 1962, 1964 and 1964 respectively and they were confirmed on that post with effect from June 1, 1977, May 1, 1979 and November 1, 1979 respectively. F. L. Kansal, the respondent a direct recruit was appointed on May 18, 1965 as Asstt. Executive Engineer in the Class I, Junior scale. The High Court allowed the writ petition of Kansal and quashed the confirmation of the appellants.

4. This Court in J. C. Yadav v. State of Haryana (1990) 2 SCC 189 and K. K. Khosla v. State of Haryana (1990) 2 SCC 199, upheld the relaxations granted by the Government under R. 22 to the appellants and Sardana. The same contention raised in the High Court there by received quietus. The High Court held that the appellants are not the members of the service till they are appointed substantively to the cadre posts under the rules. Therefore, they had no locus standi to question the promotion of B. D. Sardana as Executive Engineer and Superintending Engineer. However, the High Court held that the promotions and confirmations of the appellants (in C.A. No. 2316 of 1986) were in excess of their 50% quota and on that basis the High Court quashed them and directed the State Government to refix the seniority afresh.

5. The only question that arises in the appeals and the writ petition is whether what is the date from which the appellants and B. D. Sardana and F. L. Kansal became members of the service and what should be their seniority in the senior posts of Executive Engineers. We have discussed the rules at length in Civil Appeal No. 4094 of 1984 which have been disposed of today. The reasoning contained in that judgment apply to the instant cases also.

6. Under Rule 5(1), recruitment to the service is made from three sources; (a) direct recruitment; (b) by transfer of officers already in the service of the