The main legal point established in the judgment is the power of administrative authorities to rectify accidental mistakes and the legality of reversion following mistaken confirmation.

Petitioners challenge the proceedings Ext.P3 by which they were reverted from the post of Statistical Assistants to their substantive post of Clerk Grade I. They had been appointed as Statistical Assistants on a purely temporary and ad hoc basis, in connection with the All India Debt and Investment Survey 1981-82 organised at the instance of the first respondent, Reserve Bank of India. The basis on which selection to. the post was made is set-forth in Ext.Rl(b) communication dated August 24,1981, which shows that the survey work, for which purpose the petitioners were selected, was expected to continue for about 10-12 months, that all the appointments were purely on temporary and ad hoc basis and that those appointed will be reverted to their original status immediately on completion of the survey work. The relevant portions of Ext.Rl (b) read:

"2. The field work of the survey will commence in January 1982 and the Regional Cells will have to be set up by about first week of March 1982. The work will continue for about 10-12 months. It has been decided to prepare a panel list by inviting applications from the employees of Trivandrum/Cochin office who satisfy the following eligibility criteria and by holding interviews.

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It may be noted that the appointment from the captioned panellist will be purely on

a temporary and adhoc basis, without prejudice to the claims of their seniors, if any, and those so appointed would be reverted back to their original status immediately on completion of survey work."

It is thus indisputable from Ext.Rl (b) that the appointments were without reference to seniority, temporarily and on ad hoc basis, liable for reversion to the original posts on completion of the survey work.

2. Subsequently, and by an inadvertent mistake, the petitioners were confirmed in their posts as Statistical Assistants. There could be no doubt that this was a mistake, as the petitioners had no right to be confirmed in the post, having regard to the very terms and nature of their appointment. In fact, their seniors were still working in lower categories. Similar confirmation had taken place all over India in relation to such appointments of Statistical Assistants. When the mistake was discovered,' the respondent as a proceeding passed in violation of the principles of natural justice

3. The respondents however, point out that the staff regulations governing the petitioners are not statutory in nature, as held by the Supreme Court in V.T. Khanzode v. Reserve Bank of India, AIR 1982 SC 917. They constitute only a contract between the parties. Regulation 29 states that all appointments and promotions are in the discretion of the first respondent Bank, and notwithstanding an employee's seniority, in a grade, he has no right to be appointed, or promoted, to any particular post or grade. In any event, the confirmation of the petitioners in the cadre of Statistical Assistants were due to mistake on the part of the respondents, when they inadvertently overlooked the nature of the appointment, and the rights of seniors all over India. The mistake was rectified, and the injustice done to the seniors remedied by reverting the petitioners under Ext.P3.

4. The fact that the respondents had committed a mistake in confirming the petitioners as Statistical Assistants, when they had been appointed on purely temporary and ad hoc basis, with liability for reversion on completion of the survey work, is not very much in dispute. The contention, however, is that when once the petitioners have been confirmed in a higher post, they cannot be reverted to the lower post under any circumstance, whether the confirmation be by mistake or otherwise. The fact that rights of seniors have been ignored, albeit mistakenly, is irrelevant, say the petitioners.

5.1 am afraid I cannot agree with this tall claim. It is unsustainable in law, apart from the very injustice of it.

6. The mistaken confirmation, if allowed to stand, will confer seniority on the