G.B.PATTANAIK, J.

(1) THE judgment dated 9-12-1993 of the Division Bench of the High Court of Punjab and Haryana is under challenge in this appeal.

(2) THE question for consideration is whether the services rendered by Respondent 1 as an ad hoc employee in the cadre of Clerk can be counted for the purposes of determining his seniority. The said Respondent 1 was appointed as a Clerk on ad hoc basis on 17-7-1973 and with several breaks in the service for different periods continued, till he was regularised on 7-2- 1975. Prior to 1975, there were no recruitment rules and recruitment rules came into force in the year 1975 called "the Haryana State Central Cooperative Bank Services (Common Cadre) Rules, 1975" (hereinafter referred to as "the Rules"). The so-called ad hoc services rendered by Respondent 1 was prior to the aforesaid Rules coming into force. If there would have been no discontinuity in the service, it might have been possible to count the entire period for seniority in the absence of any rule. But in view of the discontinuity, each period must be held to be a fresh service and, therefore, by no stretch of imagination, could the services rendere