JUDGMENT :

T.S. Thakur, CJI.

1. Leave granted.

2. This appeal and the accompanying transferred petition raise a question of considerable public importance. The question precisely is whether appointment of law officers by the State Governments can be questioned or the process by which such appointments are made, can be assailed on the ground that the same are arbitrary, hence, violative of the provisions of Article 14 of the Constitution of India. Before we advert to the juristic dimensions of that question, we may briefly set out the factual backdrop in which the same falls for our consideration.

3. Petitioner No.1 to the writ petition was initially appointed as an Assistant Advocate General in terms of an order dated 23rd April, 2002. The appointment was on contractual basis valid upto 31st March, 2003, but the same was continued by an order dated 19th July 2003 upto 31st March, 2004. He was four years later appointed as Deputy Advocate General in the pay scale of Rs.18,400–22,400/- by an order dated 11th January, 2008. His tenure was later extended upto the year 2011-2012 in te