7 and 26 in all the petitions .
R. Gokhale and Harbans Singh, for respondents Nos.
The Judgment of the Court was delivered by Hegde, J. These petitions are brought by some of the Gazet ted Officers serving in the forest department of the State of Jammu and Kashmir.
Some of them are serving as Conservators of Forests, some as Divisional Forest Officers and others as Assistant Conservators of Forests.
M. I. Baig and A. N. Kaul Conservators of Forests also claim that they are seniors to Naqishbund but that fact is denied by Naqishbund.
Naqishbund was also one of the candidates seeking to be selected to the All India Forest Service.
The numberinee of the Chairman of the Union Public Service Commission, one M. A. Venkataraman was the Chairman of the board.
All of them feel aggrieved by the selections made from among the officers serving in the forest department of the State of Jammu and Kashmir to the Indian Forest Service, a service companystituted in 1966 under s. 3 1 of the All India Services Act, 1951 and the rules framed thereunder.
They are also challenging the vires of s. 3 of the All India Services Act, rule 4 of the rules framed under that Act and Regulation 5 of the Indian Forest Service Initial Recruitment Regulations 1966, framed under the aforementioned rule 4.
K. Sen and E. C. Agrawala, for the petitioners in P. No.
3/24/66 A 15 IV dated the 29th July 1967 issued by the Government of India, Ministry of Home Affairs, as according to them the selections numberified in the said numberification are violative of Arts.
Hence they have moved this Court to quash numberification No.
K. Daphtary, E. C. Agrawala, A. T. M. Sampat, S. R. Agarwala and Champat Rai, for the petitioners in W.P. No.
14 and 16 of the Constitution and on the further ground that the selections in question are vitiated by the companytravention of the principles of natural justice.
Niren De, Attorney General, N. S. Bindra and R. N. Sachthey, for respondents Nos.
ORIGINAL JURISDICTION Writ Petitions Nos.
G. Basu, Conservator of Forests in the Kashmir Forest Ser vice who is admittedly senior to Naqishbund had appealed to the State Government against his supersession and that appeal was pending with the State Government at the time the impugned selections were made.
Regulation 6 stipulates that the officers recommended by the Commission under sub r. 3 of Regulation 5 shall be appointed to the service by the Central Government subject to the availability of vacancies in the State cadre companycerned.
Sometime after the afore mentioned selections were made, at the instance of the Government of India, the adverse remarks made in the companyrse of years against those officers who had number been selected were companymunicated to them and their explanations called for.
For several years before that selection the adverse entries made in the character rolls of the officers had number been companymunicated to them and their explanation called for.
The selections as finally made by the board were accepted by the Commission.
Kaul had also appealed against his alleged supersession but it is alleged that appeal had been rejected by the State Government.
175 of 1967 .
173 to 175 of 1967.
1 to 6 in all the petitions .
Petition under Art.
Nor were they interviewed.
In doing so quite clearly the authorities companycerned had companytravened the instructions issued by the Chief Secretary of the State.
Even after the review Basu, Baig and Kaul were number selected.
Those explanations were companysidered by the State Government and on the basis of the same, some of the adverse remarks made against some of the officers were removed.
Thereafter the selection board reviewed the cases of officers number selected earlier as a result of which a few more officers were selected.
In pursuance of the Regulation mentioned above, the Central Government companystituted a special selection board for select ing officers to the Indian Forest Service in the senior scale as well as in the junior scale from those serving in the forest department of the State of Jammu and Kashmir.
