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The petitioners continued to serve in the new State and as they were in the eligibility list referred to above they were promoted as circle inspectors on various dates after November 1, 1956. It may be mentioned that eligibility lists were received in the new State of Mysore from all the States from which areas had been transferred to it under the States Reorganisation Act and these lists continued to be acted upon as and when vacancies arose in the cadre of circle inspectors. It also appears that pending integration promotions were made from these eligibility lists ad hoc, or as they were called "out of seniority", and continued to be so made pending integration. The petitioners were thus promoted ad hoc circle inspectors from the eligibility list received from the former Hyderabad State and continued to act for varying periods as such. It appears further that the petitioners were ordered to be reverted when certain confirmed circle inspectors who were on leave or on deputation outside the State returned to the new State. Thereupon the petitioners filed writs before the High Court in which they claimed that as they had been put in the eligibility list by the former Hyderabad State, they were entitled as of right to promotion as circle inspectors and to continue as such thereafter and the order of their reversion amounted to reduction in rank. They therefore prayed for a writ, order or direction quashing the orders dated September 6, 1962, ordering their reversion and directing the State Government to continue them as circle inspectors and to confirm them as such. Further during the course of arguments before the High Court, reliance was placed on r. 2(c) of the Seniority Rules framed by the Governor of Mysore in 1957 and the writ petitions before this Court are mainly based on that seniority rule to which we shall refer in due course. The case of the State Government was briefly this. It was admitted that after November 1, 1956, these officers were transferred to the new State of Mysore and eligibility lists were received from all the States from which territories and officers were tarnsferred to the new State of Mysore. As however integration of various services was bound to take time, the new State, by virtue of the powers conferred on it under the States Reorganisation Act, started acting on the eligibility lists received from the various States in anti- cipation of integration and promoting sub-inspectors to the rank of circle inspectors from those eligibility lists on an ad hoc basis and this was made clear in the various orders that were passed from time to time by using the words "out of seniority" when such promotions were made. Eventually a provisional integrated seniority list of all sub-inspectors including those who were officiating as circle inspector (hereinafter referred to as the provisional list) was prepared in February 1958. In 1962 when senior circle inspectors returned to the State from deputation, some officiating circle inspectors (other than the petitioners) were reverted. They filed writ petitions before the High Court in 1962 contending that even though they had been promoted later, they should not have been reverted in view of their position in the provisional list and that that list should have been adhered to and those junior to them in the provisional list should have been reverted. This contention was accepted by the High Court and in consequence reversions began to be made in accordance with the provisional list in compliance with the view taken by the High Court. That was why the, juniormost sub-inspectors according to the provisional list who were in the eligibility list and who were officiating as circle inspectors were reverted. In consequence -the petitioners were also reverted when senior officers came back to the State. It was further urged that the eligibility lists gave no right to the sub-inspectors whose names were borne on those lists to promotion as circle inspectors, though it was not disputed that only those who were in the eligibility lists could be promoted as circle inspectors. But the fact that a sub-inspector's name was in the eligibility list did not confer any right on him to promotion in view of the Rules. Further it was contended that officiating circle inspectors could not claim confirmation as an automatic right after they had worked for a certain number of years as such and that they could only become confirmed circle inspectors when orders to that effect were expressly made by the Government. In the present cases the petitioners were never confirmed by the Government as inspectors. There was therefore no question of any reduction in rank. It is not in dispute that the petitioners were not reverted on account of any fault on their part; they had to be reverted only because of exigencies of service as senior inspectors had come back to the State from deputation or had returned from leave. It was urged that the reversion in the present case could not amount to reduction in rank and was in ordinary course due to exigencies of service. As to r. 2 (c) of the Seniority Rules, the case of the Government was that that rule governed the seniority of inspectors while they were acting as such and had nothing to do with the question of reversion, and in any case considering that promotions had been made after November 1, 1956 on ad hoc basis, the rule would not confer any right on the petitioners and the Government was justified in following the provisional list in view of the observations of the High Court referred to above. It was therefore contended that the petitioners had no right to the posts from which they were reverted and there was no reduction in rank and they were not entitled to any benefit of r. 2(c).

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It has further been urged on the basis of r. 486 that as the petitioners had worked for more than two years on probation, they became automatically confirmed under the said rule, and reliance is placed on the following sentence in r. 486, namely, "promoted officers will be confirmed at the end of their probationary period if they have given satisfaction". The law on the question has been settled by this Court in Sukhbans Singh v. State of Punjab(1). It has been held in that case that a probationer cannot after the expiry of the probationary period automatically acquire the status of a permanent member of a service, unless of course the rules under which he is appointed expressly provide for such a result. Therefore even though a probationer may have continued to act in the post to which he is appointed on probation for more than the initial 'period of probation, he cannot become a permanent servant merely because of efflux of time, unless the Rules of service which govern him specifically lay down that the probationer will be automati- cally confirmed after the initial period of probation is over. It is contended on behalf of the petitioners before us that the part of r. 486 (which we have set out above) expressly provides for automatic confirmation after the period of probation is over. We are of opinion that there is no force in this contention. It is true that the words used in the sentence set out above are not that promoted officers will be eligible or qualified for promotion at the end of their probationary period which are the words to be often found in the rules in such cases; even so, though this part of r. 486 says that "promoted officers will be confirmed at the end of their probationary period", it is qualified by the words "if they have given satisfaction". Clearly therefore the rule does not contemplate automatic confirmation after the probationary period of two years, for a promoted officer can only be confirmed under this rule if he has given satisfaction. This condition of giving satisfaction must be fulfilled before a promoted officer can be confirmed under this rule and this condition obviously means that the authority competent to confirm him must pass an order to the effect that the probationay officer has given satisfaction and is therefore confirmed. The petitioners therefore cannot (1) A.I.R. 1962. S.C. 1711.