JUDGMENT

K.RAMASWAMY

(1) APPLICATION/S for impleadment allowed.

(2) THESE appeals and transfer cases are wrapped up of complex facts interwoven with diverse principles in service jurisprudence, compounded by legislative intervention impinging upon judicial review by enacting Act 20 of 1995 to regulate the conditions of service of persons appointed to the Haryana Service of Engineers, Class I, Public Works Department Buildings and Roads Branch, Public Health Branch and Irrigation Branch respectively. The said Act 20 of 1995 (for short "the Act") came into force with effect from 13/11/1995. It amended and repealed the Haryana Service of Engineers, Class I, PWD (Buildings and Roads Branch), (Public Health Branch) and (Irrigation Branch) Rules, Irrigation Branch by Ordinance 6 of 1995. The latter repealed the Punjab Service of Engineers, Class I, PWD (Buildings and Roads Branch), (Public Health Branch) Rules, 1960 and (Irrigation Branch) Rules, 1961 (sic 1964 issued under proviso to Article 309 of the Constitution (for short "the Rules"). The Act was given retrospective effect from 1/11/1966, the date on which the State of Haryana was formed by bifurcation of the former State of Punjab.

(3) THE cases have their chequered history. On the date of formation of the State of Haryana, the respective Services were manned by and constituted of ten promotee-officers allotted from the former State of Punjab. All of them were from Haryana (erstwhile Punjab) Class II subordinate officers. The respective repealed Rules constituted Haryana Service of Engineers, Class I, PWD consisting of Buildings and Roads Branch, Public Health Branch and Irrigation Branch respectively which were governed by the statutory repealed Rules. The Class I service of Engineers consists of the Executive Engineers, Superintendent Engineers and Chief Engineers. Subsequently, the post of Engineer-in-Chief was added in the respective branches. The Assistant Executive Engineers are the feeder cadre to the said Class I service; they are drawn by way of direct recruitment. Haryana (erstwhile Punjab) Class II, Subordinate Service was also a feeder channel for appointment by promotion, as Executive Engineers and thereafter as Superintendent Engineers or Chief Engineers or Engineers-in- Chief, as the case may be. The respective repealed Rules and the Act contained a provision for appointment by transfer from any other State or central Service; however, none was appointed from that feeder channel. Therefore, these cases do not concern that group and it has now become a dried-up source. As stated, as on 1/11/1966, ten posts, each manned by promotee personnel, were allotted to the respective branches of Haryana Service of Engineers, Class 1. The Rules provided the ratio of recruitment in Buildings and Roads and Public Health Branches, viz., 50 to the direct recruits and 50 to the promotees. In the Irrigation Branch, for the first eight years, the ratio between promotees and direct recruits was 75 and 25 ; thereafter, it became 50:50 as in other two branches. Though the Rules provided for creation of the cadre posts every year under Article 3 read with Appendix A of the respective repealed Rules, the State failed to demarcate the cadre posts; nor did it operate the services in strict conformity with the respective quotas as per the repealed Rules. As usual, it led to acrimony between the promotees and the direct recruits; their inter se seniority, which is a perennial and unending source of litigation, has again given rise to these appeals and transferred writ petitions filed in the High court of Punjab and Haryana.

(4) THE usual endless acrimony for seniority, between promotees and direct recruits, when the former are interjected into the service due to lapse of regular direct recruitment and their passage into Class I service, is being met with turbulence for faculty (sic faulty) transposition channels. The unsuccessful writ petitions