1. These two appeals arise from O. P. No. 1308/79 filed by one T. M. Somarajan who had commenced service as Sub Inspector of Police from 1965. He was a direct recruit and his date of advice was 23-2-1965. In September, 1969 the I.G. of Police published Ext. P3 seniority list of Sub Inspectors, including therein the names of all persons directly recruited to the cadre between 1-11-56 and 31-7-69, and all Head Constables duly selected and promoted to the cadre between the said two dates. Based on his rank in this list, Somarajan was included in the 1972 select list of officers eligible for promotion as Circle Inspectors. In 1977, however, the I.G. drew up Ext. P4(a) revised seniority list of Sub Inspectors, assigning higher ranks to some of the promotees in Ext. P3, and even bringing in a few more promotees and placing them above Somarajan. In this process of 'retrospective regularisation', Somarajan became junior to many Sub Inspectors who were till then his juniors. And this affected his position in the cadre of Circle Inspectors also; in fact, a revised select list of Circle Inspectors (Ext. P6) was published in October, 1978. His representation against Ext. P6 was tur