MOHD. LATIF AND OTHERS Vs. STATE OF JAMMU AND KASHMIR AND OTHERS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) All the petitions entitled above involved common questions of fact and law with certain variation in the case of individual petitioners and, therefore, we propose to decide them by one common judgment indicating individual cases wherever necessary.

(2.) In order to understand the facts giving rise to the present petitions, it may be necessary to trace the history of the scheme of the Government which has culminated in the impugned order by which the petitioners appear to have been aggrieved.

(3.) It is the admitted case of the parties that before Order No. 1791 of 1955 dated 24-11-1955 (Annexure A to the petition of Sheikh Ghulam Rasul, petitioner) was passed, the Traffic Enforcement Wing was a part of the Police Department. By and by, however, the Government felt that it would be more effective to put the Traffic Enforcement Branch under the Transport Department and with this view the Government started creating posts of various officers in the Traffic Department indicating their equivalent posts in the Police Department. The story begins with the order of the Government, No. 1791 of 1955, dated 24-11-1955 , by which two posts of Mobile Inspectors in the scale of Rs. 150250, six posts of Assistant Traffic Inspectors in the scale of Rupees 8061107145 and a number of other posts were created. Clause (2) of this order which is quoted below sought to equate the newly created posts with their counterparts in the Police Department: