Temporary employees, lacking a lien on their posts, cannot claim protection under Article 311 against reduction in rank.

WANCHOO, C. J.

( 1 ) THESE are four connected writ applications of Chiranjilal, Madansingh, Udaibhan and Ramsingh against the Union of India and the Divisional Superintendent, Northern Railway, Jodhpur. We shall deal with them together as their facts are exactly similar, and the points raised are exactly the same.

( 2 ) THE case of the applicants is that they entered service of the former Jodhpur railway as clerks in the grain shop in 1946. Though the applicants have not said so in so many words in their applications, it appears that the grain shop department was a temporary department. This is clear from what they have said in paragraph 3 of their petition, namely, that they were rendered surplus on the grain shop department being wound up in 1952. Their case further is that on the winding up of this department they were absorbed with effect from 1st of January, 1953, in a clerks grade from Rs. 55 to 130. Later, they were transferred to the Bikaner division as trains clerks in the same grade. In September, 1953, the applicants were, however, transferred back to Jodhpur. On their arrival in Jodhpur, they were appointed as Acting Pointsmen in class TV in the grade of Rs. 30 to Rs. 50. Their main complaint, therefore, is that they were reduced in rank without assigning any reason or affording any opportunity to them to show cause against such reduction within the meaning of Article 311 of the constitution. The applicants have narrated the further history of their various posts. It is not necessary to set that out because the reduction in rank, if any, took place in September, 1953, when they were transferred back to Jodhpur from Bikaner. It is enough to say that at present the applicants are holding posts in the grade of rs. 55 to Rs. 85, and their contention is that this also amounts to reduction in rank from the grade of Rs. 55 to Rs. 130.

( 3 ) THE applications have been opposed on behalf of the Railway, and their case is simple. It is admitted that the applicants were first employed by the former jodhpur Railway in the grain-shop department. The department itself was temporary, but as it was expected to last for more than 3 years, the staff was confirmed provisionally in long temporary posts. When however the department came to an end, the provisional confirmation was set aside. Thereafter, the Railway tried its best to absorb the applicants in alternative posts, and their case is that they were first absorbed from the 1st of January, 1953, as temporary clerks in the grade of Rs. 55 to Rs. 130. Later, they were transferred in the same grade to Bikaner as trains clerks, but they still remained temporary. They were transferred back from Bikaner to Jodhpur to make way for properly qualified candidates approved by the Railway Service Commission. When they came back to Jodhpur, the question of their absorption arose again, and this time they were offered alternative employment without break of service in a lower grade. Since then they have been promoted to the grade of Rs. 55 to Rs. 85. The case of the Railway in a nutshell is that the applicants were never permanent employees, and were not entitled to the rights and privileges of permanent employees, and there was, therefore, no question of the application of Article 311 of the constitution to them, and they were not entitled to ask the Railway to follow the procedure provided for those to whom Article 311 of the Constitution applied.

( 4 ) IT will be clear from this narration of the case of the parties before us that there is a dispute between them as to the petitioners status. The applicants claim to be in some kind of permanent service, at any rate, from the time of their absorption on the 1st of January, 1953. The Railway authorities, however, contend that they have all along remained temporary employees, and have never been permanently or substantively employed. The question whether the applicants have become permanent employees, or are still temporary servants