Judgment

VENKATACHALA, J.- This appeal is directed against the order dated June 11, 1979 of the Andhra Pradesh Administrative Tribunal, by which Representation Petition No. 507 of 1977 in which retrospective regularisation of the services of promotee Health Inspectors in the cadre of Health Inspectors in Andhra Pradesh Public Health Subordinate Service had been questioned by direct recruit Health Inspectors in that very cadre, is dismissed.

2. The factual context which furnishes the background in which this appeal needs consideration and decision, warrants mention at the outset.

3. During the years 1958 to 1962 Respondent 2, the Director of Medical & Health Services, Andhra Pradesh appointed the appellants and a few others in the Andhra Pradesh Public Health Subordinate Service (APPHSS) on a temporary basis since all of them had successfully completed Sanitary Inspectors Course in Osmania Medical College. Similarly, during the years 1961 to 1969 Respondent 2 appointed Respondents 4 to 121 who were Health Assistants, Health Sub-Inspectors, Vaccinators etc. in the feeder cadre, as Health Inspectors in the cadre of APPHSS by promoting them temporarily, even though they were not qualified for appointment by promotion as Health Inspectors, in that, they had not put in the requisite service in the feeder cadre. When, in the year 1968, the Andhra Pradesh Public Service Commission (PSC) invited applications from qualified candidates for selection and their appointment as Health Inspectors in the cadre of APPHSS on a permanent basis, the appellants and Respondents 4 to 121 who were already in the cadre of APPHSS on temporary basis, applied to PSC for being selected and appointed on a permanent basis as Public Health Inspectors in the said cadre. Indeed, all of them were selected by PSC and a selection list was prepared by it giving the selectees rankings on the basis of their comparative merit. The delay in appointing the selectees according to the selection list, appears to have made some of the selectees to approach the Andhra Pradesh High Court, for relief. The High Court by its order dated September 20, 1971 in Writ Petition No. 3981 of 1970. has indeed, directed the Government to take steps to appoint the selectees in the selection list of PSC, as Health Inspectors on a permanent basis in the cadre of APPHSS.

4. However, Respondents 4 to 121, who were given rankings below the appellants in the selection list of PSC, but were not to be appointed accordingly, moved the State Government for their regularisation as Health Inspectors in the cadre of APPHSS from the respective dates of their eligibility for promotion to that cadre on temporary basis, by getting their names deleted from the selection list of PSC. so as to make them become seniors to appellants in the cadre.

5. By then, Special Rules for Andhra Pradesh Public Health Subordinate Service, issued under the proviso to Article 309 of the Constitution of India on December 31, 1964, which were given retrospective effect, required of persons in the categories of Health Assistants, Health Sub-Inspectors, Vaccinators etc. of not less than three years of service in those posts for being promoted as Health Inspectors. Respondent 2, who wished to concede to the representation of promotee Health Inspectors, appears to have written to PSC, requesting it to delete the names of Respondents 4 to 121 who had been temporarily promoted as Healh Inspectors, from its selection list of Health Inspectors, so as to enable him to give retrospective promotion to them according to the dates on which they had become eligible for promotion as Health Inspectors. On deletion by the PSC of the names of Respondents 4 to 121, accordingly, Respondent 2 issued proceedings dated April 1, 1977 ordering commencement of the probation of promotee Health Inspectors with effect from the dates from which they became eligible for promotion as Health Inspectors, obviously in exercise of his powers under Rule 37(e) of the Ru