K.N. Singh, J.

The Petitioner filed the present writ petition in 1973 praying for a writ of mandamus directing the State of U.P. and the Chief Engineer, Irrigation Department, Lucknow, to fix his salary as Assistant Engineer and also to place his name above Respondents Nos. 3 and 4 in the seniority list of Engineers.

2. After the coming into force of the Constitution (Forty Second Amendment) Act, 1976, an application was made on behalf of the State Government with a prayer that the petition be disposed of as having abated u/s 58(2) of that Act, on the ground that the Petitioner has an alternative remedy of raising his claim before the Services Tribunal constituted under the U.P. Public Services (Tribunals) Act, 1976. The Petitioner also filed an application for the amendment of the writ petition and raised grounds challenging validity of the U.P. Public Services (Tribunals) Act. Both these applications have been heard by us at some length.

3. Section 58(2) of the Constitution (Forty Second Amendment) Act lays down that every pending petition before a High Court which could not be admitted by the High Court under the provisions of Article 226 as substituted by Section 38 of t