Judgment

SAWANT, J.- These matters have a chequered history. The appellants as well as most of the contesting respondents were appointed as Junior Engineers in the Andhra Pradesh Electricity Subordinate Service on emergency basis between 1959 and 1963. While they were in service on April 24, 1963, the Andhra Pradesh Public Service Commission (hereinafter referred to as the "Commission") invited applications for regular appointment by direct recruitment to 246 posts of Junior Engineers and on December 21, 1963, the Commission forwarded a list of selected candidates to the State Government. This list was, however, not arranged according to merits and therefore according to seniority inter se among the candidates. On April 15, 1964, the Commission forwarded to the government the list of selected candidates arranging their names according to merits and seniority and after complying with the reservation prescribed by Rule 22(ii)(c) of the Andhra Pradesh State and Subordinate Service Rules (hereinafter referred to as the "Rules") by which the relevant service was governed. On August 11,1964, the State Government amended the said Rules by deleting the said Rule 22 (ii)(c)with retrospective effect from April 1, 1964. This amendment was effected to comply with the decision of this Court in M.R. Balaji v. State of Mysore{AIR 1963 SC 649 : 1963 Supp 1 SCR 439}. In spite of the fact that the Rules were so amended on August 11, 1964 with retrospective effect, the State Government on April 29, 1965 gazetted the list of selected candidates as was sent to them by the Commission on April 15, 1964. The result was the list as gazetted was in breach of the said Rules. After the gazette notification, on April 29, 1965 the Chief Engineer of the government appointed all the said candidates to the posts of Junior Engineers who included the appellants and the respondents and others according to the order of seniority communicated by the Commission. The candidates so appointed were put on probation for a total period of two years.

2. The seniority as notified in the said list was challenged by a Writ Petition No. 2146 of 1966 in the High Court of Andhra Pradesh in November 1966 by 10 Junior Engineers belonging to the non-reserved category on the ground that the same was in breach of law since it was contrary both to the said decision of this Court as well as to the Rules as they stood amended on August 11, 1964 w.e.f. April 1, 1964. The learned Single Judge disposed of the said writ petition on the assurance of the government contained in their Memorandum No. 3373 E-II/70 dated July 17, 1970 addressed to the Government Pleader that the seniority list would be revised in compliance with the amended Rules so far as the petitioners were concerned. Unfortunately, the learned Judge did not appreciate the discrimination to which the said assurance was to lead, since the assurance related only to the petitioners before him and had excluded the rest of the Junior Engineers similarly situated. The matter, however, rested there.

3. On December 28, 1972 the State Government gave an option to all the Junior Engineers including the petitioners and the respondents to choose between the government service and a permanent transfer to the Andhra Pradesh State Electricity Board.

4. Before the transfers could be effected, it appears that there was a correspondence between the government and the Commission for changing the seniority list pursuant to the assurance given by the State Government to the learned Single Judge. The Commission opined that the seniority list could not be altered in respect of only 10 petitioners in the said writ petition and had to be altered in respect of all the candidates selected, to comply with the amended Rules. Accordingly, the Commission on June 27, 1973 sent the corrected seniority list to the State Government. The government accepted the said list, and on July 23, 1973 directed its Chief Engineer to circulate the said revised list and to in