it is to be numbered that 52 petitioners who went to the High Court by way of writ petition number 3182 of 1973 and others decided on 9.1.1981 were principally aggrieved by recovery sought to be effected from their pay on the basis of the impugned Government order and the Act bifurcating the companymon cadre of Junior Engineers retrospectively with effect from 3.7.1969 and bringing into force separate pay scales for these two cadres.
Accordingly, a writ of mandamus was issued restraining the respondents from recovering any part of the salary received by the number graduate Junior Engineers petitioners for any period prior to 9.1.1974 and a further mandamus was issued to pay the salary which accrued to them upto 9.1.1974, which had number been paid.
The High Court by its decision dated 1.9.1981 took the, view that bifurcation of the companybined cadre of Junior Engineers which was holding the field from 1969 to 1974 companyld be operative from 9.1.1974 for the purpose of separate pay scales of graduate and number graduate Junior Engineers.
At the time of their re cruitment, relevant recruitment rules envisaged that only degree holders were entitled to be appointed as Junior Engineers, whereas diploma holders companyld be appointed as Supervisors.
This was followed by an order of the Karnataka State in 1971 extending identical pay scales with retrospective effect from 1.1.1957 to both graduate and diploma holder Junior Engineers.
By the said amendment to the recruitment rules a companybined cadre of Junior Engineers was formed and the category of posts of Supervisors was omitted from the entry relating to the posts of Junior Engineers in the schedule to the Rules.
The said direction was sought for appellant number 1 from 3.7.1969, on which date by Gazette numberification a companybined cadre of Junior Engineers had companye into operation, while a similar direction was sought for appellant number 2 from 1970, from the date on which he got graduation.
This retrospective bifurcation was sought to be supported by an enactment called the Karnataka State Civil Services Classi fication and Scale of Pay of Non graduate Junior Engineers of the Public Works Department Act, 1975 being Act 9 of 1975.
The result was that from 3.7.1969, pursuant to amendment of recruitment rules as per Government numberification, there emerged a companybined cadre of Junior Engineers and all erstwhile incumbents whether graduates or number graduates were put on par in a companymon cadre of Junior Engineers.
These two civil appeals by special leave seek to challenge a companymon order dated 30.1.1988 of the Administrative Tribunal, Karnataka in Application Nos.
The aforesaid bifurcation of cadres was brought in challenge in Karnataka High Court by writ petition number 3182 of 1973.
During the pendency of the writ petition Karnataka Act 9 of 1975 came into force.
It is thereafter that the appellants approached the Karnataka High Court by filing writ petitions for issuance of appropriate order against respondent authorities directing them to treat the appellants as Junior Engineers Division 1 in the light of their existing qualification of graduation.
Later, appellant number 1 acquired degree in civil engineering in 1967 and appellant number 2 acquired graduation in engineering in 1970.
They were recruited as Supervisors in the years 1960 and 1961 in the Public Works Department of Karnataka State.
In 1969 this position was changed and both the cadres of Junior Engineers and Supervisors were merged into one cadre of Junior Engineers.
The Karnataka State by another order dated 9.1.1974 sought to bifurcate the service into two cadres, namely, Junior Engineer Division 1 and Junior Engineer Division II .
These writ petitions were transferred to the Karnataka Administrative Tribunal which had got established in the meantime.
The appellants, who were earlier Supervisors, therefore, became Junior Engineers, pursuant to the aforesaid Government numberification.
The former cadre was to companyprise of degree holders and the later of diploma holders.
This bifurcation of cadres was sought to be given retrospective effect from 3.7.1969.
In so far as the Act sought to give retrospective effect to its operation for a period prior to 9.1.1974, it was regarded as invalid.
The earlier distinction between graduate Junior Engineers and number graduate Supervisors was abolished.
These scales were also given retrospective effect from 1.
The writ petitions were accordingly partly allowed.
4814 and 4815 of 1986 moved by the present two appellants.
A few introductory facts to highlight the companymon grievance of the appellants may be numbered at the outset.
The appellants were initially diploma holders in engineering.
