Judgment

A. D. KOSHAL

( 1 ) ORDER - The short question which falls for determination in this petition under Art. 32 of the Constitution of India praying for the issuance of appropriate writs quashing the letter dated 16th of March, 1979, by which the representation Made by the petitioner against the seniority assigned to him in the cadre of Income-tax Officers, Class I was rejected and he was informed that the seniority list forming an appendix to Annexure 1 had been correctly framed in accordance with the rules then in force.

( 2 ) THE answer to the question posed by the petition has to be answered with reference to Rules 4, 6 and 8 of the Released Emergency Commissioned Officers and Short Service Commissioned Officers (Reservation of Vacancies) Rules, 1971 (hereinafter called the Rules ). The relevant part of Rule 4 (1) reads thus :

4 (1) Twenty per cent of the vacancies in the Indian Foreign Service, an:! 25 per cent of the vacancies in all the Central Civil Services and Posts, Class I, to which these rules apply shall be reserved for being filled by the Emergency Commissioned Officers and the Short Service Commissioned Officers of the Armed Forces of the Union who were commissioned after the 1/11/1962 but before the 10/01/1968, and who-

( 3 ) MR. Abdul Khader appearing for the Union of India has contested the interpretation just above placed by us on sub-rule (3) of Rule 6, According to him that interpretation makes the sub-rule retrospective in operation, which it is not. We agree that the sub-rule is intended to be prospective only and that the above interpretation would be operative only after the date on which the sub-rule was promulgated and not before that. But then that means that every seniority list prepared after the date of the promulgation of the sub-rule would be governed by it. Similarly, every promotion made and every question relating to seniority cropping up after the date of the promulgation of the sub-rule (which is 28th Aug,, 1971) shall be determined according to that sub-rule. No question of retrospectivity of the sub-rule is thus involved. Of course, the inter se seniority of officers of the cadre prevailing up to 28th Aug. 1971 had to be determined under the rules as they existed before that date and any promotions made earlier to that date would continue to be good if made in accordance with those rules. However, the position changed with the promulgation of the Rules and any promotion made thereafter, has to conform to them.

( 4 ) FACED with the above situation Mr. Abdul Khader argued that the word unreserved in sub-rule (3) of Rule 6 would embrace the vacancies reserved for candidates belonging to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes who had joined the cadre through open competition, etc. , because the sub-rule meant to take within its ambit all such persons who had been recruited in that manner. The logic of the argument is not clear to us because it makes the whole sub-rule meaningless. If the argument were to be accepted, the use of the word unreserved would be wholly uncalled for and we just cannot hold that the word is redundant, forms part as it does of subordinate legislation. The word unreserved can obviously not be equated with its antonym, that is, reserved, and has to be applied only to vacancies which do not fall within the reserved categories.

( 5 ) MR. Abdul Khader took another point and that was to the effect that the rules of the service in question had been amended earlier to 1971 so as to place candidates covered by R. 4 (1) below those who had been appointed to reserved vacancies through a competitive examination. That may well have been so but then that makes no difference to the interpretation which is given above to subrule (3) of R. 6. R. 8 of the Rules declares in no uncertain terms that all rules regulating the recruitment of persons to Central Civil Services and Posts, Class I, to which the Rules apply, shall be deemed to have been amended to the extent provided for in