( 1 ) THIS judgment will dispose of L. P. A. No. 78 of 1978 and Civil Writ Petition No. 378 of 1982, wherein the common question which arises is with regard to the validity of the amendment brought about to Rule 9 of the Railway Board Secretariat Service Rules, 1969.

( 2 ) THE Government framed the Railway Board Secretariat (Re-organisation and Re-inforcement) Scheme on 7th January, 1958 which provided for recruitment to the post of Assistant in Railways. This scheme was given retrospective effect from 1st December, 1954. The said scheme was drawn; up in line similar to the schemes applicable to the staff of the various other Ministries included provided that the pasts of Assistants would be filed in the following manner:-

A) "50 per cent by nomination by the Ministry of Home Affairs on the results of the examination conducted by the Union Public Service Commission. b) Not less than 25 per cent by promotion of clerks of Railway Board s office provided suitable persons are available. c) Upto 25% by recrutment from Railways. "in 1955 about 251 Assistants (175 from the Board and 76 from the Railways) Were working when, in November 1955, examination was held by the Union Public Service Commission, inter alia, for directly recruiting Assistants in the Railway Board. As a consequence of the said examination, first batch of 23 dierect recruits was appointed as Assistants in about October 1956.

( 3 ) THE relative seniority of the Assistants, appointed from different sources, was regulated by paragraph 315 of the Railway Board Manual of Office Procedure (1938 Edition ). The relevant paragraph of the Manual is as under :-

"relative Seniority-Relative Seniority of candidates when permanent vacancies are filled partly by promotion or transfer form other officers and partly by direct recruitment is determined according as, under the rules, the vacancy to be filled by direct recruitment or that to be filled by promotion or transfer from another officer occurred earlier. "as 50 per cent of the posts of the Assistants had to be filled by direct recruitment, 25 per cent from Railway Board s office and 25 per cent from the Railways, the inter-se seniority of the said Assistants was determined on the basis of U:b:u:r: formula, in a rotational order. In this formula U stands for direct recruits, B stands for promotees from the Board s office and R refers to the Assistants who were drafted from the Railways. Seniority list was prepared by applying this formula. The first such seniority list was published on 27th April, 1964. It appears that some of the Assistants, who were not direct recruits, filed writ petitions in the Supreme Court being civil writ No. 98 to 103 of 1964 challenging the aforesaid rule of seniority. It was, inter alia, contended that the relative seniority of the direct recruits vis-a-vis the promotees should not be fixed on a rotational basis and that the senority should be fixed with reference to the date of entry into the grade of Assistant. It was also submitted that the Railway Board Secretariat (Reorgani sation and Reinforcement) Scheme could not be given retrospective effect from 1st December, 1954. The writ petitions, however, were withdrawn by the petitioners and were dismissed as such.

( 4 ) THE aforesaid Railway Board Secretariat (Reorganisation and Reinforcement) Scheme was superseded by statutory rules framed under proviso to Article 309 of the constitution known as Railway Board Secretariat Service Rules, 1969. Rule 9 of the 1969 Rules provided for the manner in which recruitment to the next higher grade of section officers from out of the persons Working in Assistant s grade was to be made. The said Rule read as under :--

"recruitment to the Section Officers and the Assistants Grades- (1) Subject to the provisions of sub Rule (3), recruitment to the substantive vacancies in the Section Officers "grade shall be made on the following basis, namely :- (a) 25 per cent of vacancies by direct recruitment