1. This writ petition has been ordered to be placed before a Full Bench as it raises an important question as to the nature of the power exercised by the Central Government in the matter of integration of services in the States. In M. A. Faleel v. State of Mysore AIR. 1961 Mysore 210 a Division Bench of the Mysore High Court took the view that the power of the Central Government in the matter of integration of service was an exclusive original power. There were observations in a different strain made by one of us (Raman Nayar, J.) in Kunhikrishnan Nambiar v. State of Kerala 1964 KLT 704. In this latter case, the Mysore decision was not noticed, nor were provisions of Art.4 of the Constitution. In view of all this our learned brother Mathew, J. felt that the question should be decided by a Full Bench.

2. The petitioner was appointed Municipal Commissioner in the Travancore State in the year 1945 for a term of three years, renewed in 1948, and again in 1951, for a further term of three years on each occasion. By the time of the last renewal the Travancore-Cochin State had been formed by the integration of the States of Travancore and Cochin. There were no rules governing t