Holding

The classification under the 1971 Rules does not violate Article 14 and the executive policy is a valid, non‑irrational decision, so the petition is dismissed.

Summary

The Supreme Court examined a petition by the All India Ex‑Emergency Commissioned Officers and Short Service Commissioned Officers Welfare Association seeking to extend the benefits of the 1971 Rules on reservation of vacancies to officers appointed to non‑reserved posts, alleging that the classification of officers into reserved and non‑reserved categories violated Article 14 of the Constitution. The Court held that the Rules represent a policy decision of the executive to compensate officers who served during the emergency, and that courts may intervene only if such policy is illegal, irrational, or procedurally improper. It found no infirmity in the policy, noting that recruitment for reserved posts is conducted separately, eliminating any clash of interest between the two categories. Consequently, the classification was deemed to have a rational nexus to the objective of the Rules and not violative of the equality clause. The petition was dismissed, with each party bearing its own costs.

Issues considered

Whether the classification of released emergency commissioned officers and short service commissioned officers into holders of reserved posts and holders of non‑reserved posts under the 1971 Rules violates Article 14 of the Constitution.
Whether the executive policy embodied in the Rules is arbitrary, irrational, or procedurally improper, thereby warranting judicial interference.

Legislation cited

Subjects

Article 14EqualityReservation of vacanciesEmergency commissioned officersAdministrative lawJudicial reviewPolicy decisionCivil servicesWrit petitionConstitutional law

Judgment

A ALL INDIA EX-EMERGENCY COMMISSIONED OFFICERS AND
SHORT COMMD. OFFICERS WELFARE ASSN. AND ANR. ETC.
v.
UNION OF INDIA AND ANR.

SEPTEMBER 20, 1994
B
[KULDIP SINGH AND B.L. HANSARIA, JJ.]

Service Law:·

C Released Emergency Commissioned Officers and Short Service _Com-
missioned Officers(Reservation of Vacancies) Rules, 1971:

Benefits extended to holders of reserved posts and not to holders of
non-reserved posts-Whether discriminatory and violative of Art. 14 of the
Constitution of India-Held: No.
D
Constitution of India, 1950 :

Art. 14-:Released Emergency Commissioned Officers and Short Ser-
vice Commissioned Officers (Reservation of Vacancies) Rules, 1971-B'enefit
E extended to holders of non-reserved posts-Held: Not vio?ative of equality
cla!-lse. ·

The Released Emergency Commissioned Officers and Short Service
Commissioned Officers (Reservations of Vacancies) Rules, 1971 were
framed to compensate the Emergency Commissioned officers for the
F chances they had lost by entering public s_ervices during the time the
country needed them. The Ruks applied to those who were commissioned
after 1st November, 1962, but before 10th January, 1968; certain posts in
Ctntral Civil Services were reserved for them and their seniority was
determined as if they entered the service at the first opportunity on or
G before the date of their Commission, after the training period.

The Writ petitioners claimed that the benefit of the said Rules
should be made available to those who joined the non-reserved posts also.

It was contended by the petitioners that the classification viz. holders
H of reserved post and non-reserved posts, was violative of Art. 14.
712
COMMD. OFFICERs &SHORT COMMD. OFFICERS WELFARE ASSN. v. u.o.I. [HANSARIA, J.] 713

Dismissing the Writ Petition, this Court A
· HELD : 1. A policy decision was taken to give some benefit to those
servicemen who had stood with the people when the country was invaded
and had rendered useful service during the emergency. How such benefit
and in what shape it ought to have been given are not matters on which
courts can have ~ny say; these are exclusively for the executive to decide. B
The courts come into picture in such policy matters if the same be either
illegal or irrational or were to suffer from proc•· dural impropriety. There
is no such infirmity in the policy at hand. (714-F-G]
.
Tata Cellular v. Union of India, JT (1994) 4 SC 532, relied on. C
'I
2. As the recruitment for the reserved post is through separate
method, there is no possibility of some of the released officers obtaining
reserved posts with the benefit available under the Rules, and others
obtaining non-reserved posts with no benefit visualised by the Rules. So
the two types of incumbents have to be taken as belonging to two different D
categories; the one having no clash of interest with the other; the one being
denied on benefit available to the other. (714-H, 715-A-B]

CIVIL ORIGINAL JURISDICTION : Writ Petition (C) No. 151 of
1989.
E
(Under Article 32 of the Constitution of India.)

Along with WP {C) No. 670/93, S.L.P. (C) Nos. 9765-66/94.

R.K. Kapoor, M.K. Singh, P.Verma and Anis Ahmed Khan for the
Petitioner in W.P. No. 151/89 & 670/93 Petitioner-in-person in SLP Nos. F
9765-66/94.

V.C. Mahajan, Anil Kr. Sangal and C.B. Babu for the Respondents.

S. Wasim A Qadri for the Respondent in No.2.
G
The Judgment o( the Court was delivered by

HANSARIA, J. The Released Emergency Commissioned Officers
and Short Service Commissioned Officers (Reservation of Vacancies)
Rules, 1971 (for short, the Rules) came to be framed by the President of
India to compensate the emergency commissioned officers for the chances H
714 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [1994) SUPP. 3 S.C.R.

A . they had lost by entering public services during the time the country needed
them. The Rules apply to those who were commissioned after the 1st
November, 1962 but before the 10th January, 1968 and make certain
percentage of reservation in all Central Civil Services and their seniority,
on entering these services, is determined on the assumption that ·they
B entered the same "at the first opportunity they had after joining the training
prior to their Commission or the date of their Commission". The prayer of
the All India ex-Emergency Commissioned Officers and short service
Commissioned Officers Welfare Association and other petitioners is that
the same benefit should be made available to these categories of persons
when they join the non-reserved posts also.
c
2. Shri Kapoor who addressed us on behalf of the aforesaid Associa-
tion has streneously contended that as the object behind the framing of the
Rules was to compensate for the lost opportunity there is no rational basis
in classifying the aforesaid officers in two categories - holders of reserved
posts and non-reserved posts. According to the learned counsel, such a
D classification is hit by Article 14 on the well accepted principle that a
classification to pass the test of this Article is not only to be founded on
intelligible differentia, but the same must also have a rational relation to
the object sought· to be achieved i.e. there must be a nexus between the
basis of classification and the object behind the same.
E
3: There can be no quarrel with the aforesaid legal proposition; it
has become well entrenched by now. We do not, however, view this matter
as one of classifying the aforesaid ex-servicemen in two categories men-
tioned by Shri Kapoor. According to us, a policy decision was taken to give
F some benefit to those servicemen who had stood with the people when the
country was invaded and had rendered useful service·during the emergency
in question. How much benefit and in what shape it ought to have been
· given are not matters on which courts can heave any say, these are
exclusively for the executive to decide. The court come into picture in such
policy matters if the same be either illegal or irrational or were to suffer
G from procedural impropriety, as ·reiterated recently by this Court in Tata
Cellular v. Union of India, JT (1994) 4 SC 532. We do not find any such
. infirmity in the policy at hand.
-
4. This is not atl. As the recruitment for the reserved post is throlJgh
H separate method, as stated in para 6(b) of the reply filep on behalf of
COMMD. Ol'FJCERS & SHORT COMMD. OFFICERS WELi'ARE ASSN. v. U.0.1. [HANSARIA, J.] 715

respondents No. 1 and 2 to Writ Petition No. 151 of 1989, there is no A
possibility of some of the released officers obtaining reserved posts with
the benefit available under the Rules, and others obtaining non-reserved
posts with no benefit visualised by the Rules. So the two types of incum-
bents have to be taken as belonging to two different categories; the one
having no clash of interest with the other; the one being denied no benefit
B
available to the other.

5. In view of the aforesaid, we are not in a position to concede the
prayer made in these petitions. They are, therefore, dismissed. We leave
the paties to bear their own costs.

G.N. Petitions dismissed.