JUDGMENT

S.B. Majmudar, J.

1. These two appeals by special leave arise out of the judgment rendered by a Division Beach of the Patna High Court in Civil Writ Jurisdiction Case No. 2223 of 1987 decided on 16.3.1988 The High Court has allowed the writ petition of the writ petitioners. Two batches of the concerned aggrieved respondents have filed the present civil appeals.

2. The short facts leading to these proceedings deserve to be noted at the outset. The appellants and the original writ petitioners who are respondents in these appeals belong to the Bihar Finance Service. The Bihar Service was originally consisting of two branches, namely, the Senior Branch and the Junior Branch. As per the Bihar Finance Service Rules, 1953 framed under Article 309 of the Constitution of India, seniority was to be reckoned from the date of the substantive appointment of the concerned incumbent. The appellants herein were appointed to the Junior Branch while original writ petitioners were appointed as direct recruits in the senior Branch. So far as the original writ petitioners, respondents herein, are concerned, some of them were directly recruited and appointed in the Senior Branch on 12.5.1974 and