The State Government has the power to amend the Rajasthan Municipal (Subordinate & Ministerial Service) Rules, 1963, and the practice of making temporary appointments under Rule 27 of the Rules and then continuing them for years together is an abuse of the procedure for direct recruitment.

1. - Under this order we will be dealing with the above numbered batch of writ petitions as the question involved in all the cases is identical and for the disposal of these writ petitions, we will give the facts of Ratan Singh v. State of Rajasthan and others, D.B. Civil Writ Petition No. 1830/85.

2. In exercise of the powers conferred by clause (b) of sub-section (2) of Section 297 read with Section 88 of the Rajasthan Municipalities Act, 1954 (Act No. 38 of 1959) (for short, the Act) the State Government made the Rajasthan Municipal (Subordinate & Ministerial Service) Rules, 1963 (for short, the Rules). In the present batch of writ petitions the categories of posts involved are of subordinate service and the posts of Assistant Revenue Inspectors, Nakedar (Moharrar), Sub-Nakedar (Sub Moharrar), Lower Division Clerks are the categories for which each of the petitioners on the advertisement No. 7/1984 published in Dainik Navjyoti dated October 15, 1984, issued by the Rajasthan Panchayat and Local Self Government Service Commission, Jaipur (for short, the Commission) had applied. The application form for each of the posts was purchased by paying Rs. 8/-. The petitioner after having purchased the application form by deposit of Rs. 8/- applied for the post of Junior Engineer, Municipal Council Jaipur. About 2000 posts in different categories were advertised to be filled in the Municipal Councils/Boards in the State of Rajasthan and a large number of applications were received by the last date i.e. December 31, 1984. The petitioner did not receive an inter-view call and so far as other applicants arc concerned, they also did not receive the interview-calls. A Notification dated July 4, 1985 was published in the Rajasthan Gazette dated July 18, 1985, making the amendments in the proviso to rule 8 of the Rales a in the said proviso prior to the aforesaid amendment the date was mentioned August 31, 1980, but inc said date was substituted by the date December 31, 1984. After the aforesaid amendment the first proviso to rule 8 of the Rules will read as under:-

"Provided that the cases of such persons who were temporarily appointed during the period from 24.11.1963 to 31.12.1984 (both inclusive) and who have not so far been confirmed on their respective posts, although working continuously shall be referred to the Commission by the Board concerned alongwith its recommendations for adjudging their suitability. The service record of the persons shall be sent to the Commission while referring cases to it. The Commission, after considering the recommendations of the Board, the service record of the individuals, their qualifications, age etc. adjudge their suitability and shall communicate its decision to the Board concerned. The persons found suitable shall be treated as substantively appointed from the date of their temporary appointment."
The second proviso provides that in case a person is not adjudged suitable by the Commission for the post to which he has been appointed, his services shall be terminated forthwith and thereupon such post shall be deemed to have become vacant and shall then be filled in accordance with the Rules.

3. It may be stated that the aforesaid Notification dated July 4, 1985 was repeated in the Rajasthan Gazette dated July 25, 1985.

4. The petitioner has challenged the aforesaid Notification on the ground that the same is arbitrary, malafide and without authority of law.

5. In the return filed on behalf of the non-petitioners Nos. 1 to 3 a case has been set up that the necessity of amendment arose because in 1983-84 a large number of temporary appointments under rule 27 of the Rules were made and they were made after inviting the names of suitable persons from the Employment Exchange. Those persons had made representations through the Municipal Employees Federation to regularise the cases of such of the persons who have been appointed and working in the municipal institutions after March 31, 1980. The State G