Judgment

BEG, J.

( 1 ) THE five appeals before us - one by the Union of India and four by the State and the Chief secretary to the government of Uttar Pradesh-are directed against a common judgment given by division bench of the Allahabad High court, on two Writ Petitions, one by M. L. Capoor and the other by K. N. Misra, and two special appeals, one by Ganesh Singh Seth and the other by Basant Kumar Joshi. As all the cases, resting upon similar facts, raised common questions of law they were heard together and disposed of by a common judgment which has come up before us on grant of certificates of fitness of the cases by the Allahabad High court under Art. 133 (l) (c) of the Constitution of India for appeal to this court.

( 2 ) M. L. Capoor and K. N. Misra, have been members of the U. P. State Police Service, who were brought on a select list for promotion to the Indian Police Service in 1961 and 1962 since when they officiated on cadre posts of the Indian Police Service as Superintendents of Police for a number of years. They were eligible to be considered for promotion under Regulation 4 of Indian Police Service (Appointment by Promotion) Regulations, 1955, and came on the select