Law: Constitution of Pakistan, 1962

Section: 98

Constitution of Pakistan (1962), Art. 98---Civil servant- Seniority-Declaratory decree in respect of seniority list obtained from civil Court-Writ jurisdiction, held, not appropriate remedy for implementation of such decree, nor could any proceeding under Art. 98 be taken in respect of matter of seniority, such matter being no longer condition of service guaranteed by Constitution of Pakistan (1962). Date of hearing : 1st December 1971.                                                                                                           JUDGMENT HAMOODUR RAHMAN, C. J.-This is a petition for the review of an order passed by this Court on the 29th of June 1971 dismissing Civil Petition for Special Leave to Appeal No. 37 of 1971. The petitioners, who are optee Railway Guards from the East Indian Railway, joined the North-Western Railway on coming to Pakistan. In the beginning they were provisionally placed in a combined seniority list prepared in the year 1952 with Guards opting from other Railways to Pakistan. There were subsequently further changes in the combined seniority list and a concordance of optee Guards was prepared by the Railway Administration. The petitioners felt aggrieved by the position given to them in the combined seniority list as a result of the subsequent changes and they filed a suit in the Court of the Civil Judge, Multan, for a declaration that the combined seniority list prepared in 1952 had been illegally ; and unlawfully changed and that they were entitled to be treated as Grade B Guards. Their complaint was that they had been wrongly placed in a lower grade as Grade `C' Guards. That Suite was dismissed in 1959 and the decision was upheld in appeal by the High Court. A writ petition, being Writ Petition No. 1198 of 1957, filed by another Guard of Group `B', was also dismissed by the High Court on the 11th of December 1962. The petitioners then filed another suit,…