In determining seniority between two categories of employees, the maximum salary in the scale of pay is the relevant factor.

M. Srinivasan, C. J.—The petitioners joined the service of the second respondent M/s. Jogindra Central Co-operative Bank Limited, Nalagarh which is a Co-operative Society governed by the provision of Himachal Pradesh, Co-operative Societies Act, 1968. First five petitioners joined the service in 1970 and the sixth petitioner joined in 1973. The petitioners ere appointed as Recovery Supervisors in the pay scale of Rs. 60-4-80/3-120 This scale was revised to Rs 70-5-175/. It was further revised to Rs. 110-250 on the Punjab pattern. Respondents No 3 to 9 entered service as Junior Clerks in the year 1970. According to the petitioners they were all juniors to them when they entered service. The scale of pay of the respondents originally was Rs. 60-4-80/5-120 but later on revised to Rs. 210-430 on Punjab pattern The petitioners made representations to the second respondent to integrate these two categories of post namely junior clerks and recovery supervisors, in 1980. The Executive Committee of the second respondent resolved that the two categories be integrated in the scale ol Rs. 210 130 from the date of respective appointments The resolution also said that the petitioners will not claim arrears on the basis of such integration. The Board of Directors accepted all the recommendations of the Executive Committee and passed a resolution accordingly The matter was referred by the Board of Directors to the Registrar of the Co operative Societies who passed the order on 10-8-1982. The relevant portion of the order reads as follows :

"The representation of Recovery Supervisors regarding fixation of seniority and grant of arrears after fixation of pay etc has been considered m this office and keeping in view the proposal of the management of Bank forwarded to this office vide letter No 2659/JCBN-81-82, dated 27-1-1982. it has been decided to treat Recovery Supervisors at par with the Junior Clerks with the following provisions : —

1. The qualifications for both the posts shall be equivalent.

2. The Bank shall maintain joint seniority list of Recovery Supervisors and Junior Clerks. The Junior Clerks already in high scale will be senior to the recovery Supervisors 3 Both the posts shall be inter-changeable.

4. The recovery supervisors shall also be eligible for promotion to the senior clerks.

5. The recovery supervisors will be fixed in the scale of Junior Clerks with immediate effect and will not be eligible for any arrears. You are, therefore, requested to make provisions in the service rules accordingly."

2. The petitioners were aggrieved by the directions of the Registrar that the Junior Clerks already in the high scale will be senior to the Recovery Supervisors and Recovery Supervisors will not be eligible for any arrears. They filed the petition for review before the Registrar in November 1982 and that was rejected by a communication dated 26th September, 1983. The petitioners filed an appeal before the Secretary (Co-operation) to the Government of Himachal Pradesh who passed an order on 4-3-1993 dismissing the same and upholding the order of the Registrar.

3. But soon after filing the appeal before the Secretary, the petitioners approached this court with this writ petition for quashing the orders passed by the Registrar originally. In this writ a direction was given by this Court on the 27th August, 1992 to the Secretary to dispose of the said appeal within a period of four months from that date. The court also directed that the copy of the decision shall be placed on record in this case. The copy of the order passed by the Secretary (Co-operation) is at Annexure R 111. The petitioners filed an amendment to the writ petition challenging the order of the Secretary also.

4. There can be no doubt whatever that when the petitioners were appointed and for long time thereafter their scale of pay was much lower than the scale of the Junior Clerks. la 1974 the scale of pay of the Junior I Clerks was revised to Rs, 210-430. No doubt, accor