I.A. Ansari, J.

1. By the impugned judgment and order, dated 9.8.2002, passed in WP(C) No. 62/2000, the writ petition has been dismissed. Feeling aggrieved, the writ petitioner has, now, preferred the present appeal.

2. Can the terms and conditions of the service of a Government servant, unlike that of an employee in a private sector, be altered unilaterally by the statutory or constitutional authority concerned? If so, whether such alteration can be made with retrospective effect and if so, what is the extent of such powers ? Will the power to amend the conditions of service retrospectively include the power to take away or abridge, with retrospective effect, those rights, which have already accrued to the Government employee under the existing rules and before the amendment was introduced ? Whether the writ of mandamus, issued in a given case, can be superseded by the Government and if so, how and what extent ? What was the real question, which the WP(C) No. 62/2000, had raised for determination and whether the learned Single Judge has, on 9.8.2000, correctly disposed of the writ application ? Did Rule 55A, introduced in the Central Civil Services (Pension) Rules, 1972, as