Judgment

RUMA PAL, J.

( 1 ) A tangled Web of facts and law would best describe this case which involves the question of the seniority of doctors in the Uttar Pradesh Medical Services, To untangle the factual aspect, we need to start from 1945.

( 2 ) PRIOR to 1945 there were two medical services in the State of U. P.- the Provincial medical Service (PMS) and Provincial Subordinate medical Services (PSMS ). On June 14, 1945 the Government of U. P. framed rules known as The United Provinces Medical Service (Mens Branch) Rules, 1945 (referred to hereafter as the 1945 Rules ). In 1946, two new medical services were constituted, namely, pms Grade I and PMS Grade II. On 2nd November, 1964 PMS Grade 1 and Grade 11 were merged with effect from 1st November 1964. However, there were no rules for fixing in terse seniority of the officers of the two erstwhile services which were so merged. The issue of the inter-se seniority between the members of the new service as merged i. e. between PMS I and PMS II, was resolved ultimately by this court by its decision in State of U. P. v. M. J. Siddiqui 1980 (3) SCC 180. As far as recruitment to the new PMS was concerned by way of a stop gap arrangement th