' SAAD SAOOD JAN, J.--Respondent No,1, Safdar Ali Chaudhry, in these two petitions for special leave to appeal was Assistant Conservator in the Forest Department of the Punjab Government. In 1973 he was permitted on his own request to take up an assignment in the North Western State of Nigeria for a period of four years. After the expiry of the said period, the period of the assignment was extended by periodic orders and ultimately he returned to Pakistan in 1983. While he was out of Pakistan, some officers junior to him were promoted as Conservators of Forest. The selection committee considered his case for promotion also in his absence but deferred it with the observation that it should be taken up after his return to Pakistan. On his return to Pakistan he was also promoted to that grade. He made representations that his promotion should be back-dated to coincide with the time when the officers junior to him were promoted so that he would retain his seniority in the higher grade. His representations were rejected by the departmental authorities. He then filed an appeal before the Provincial Service Tribunal.
2. Before the Tribunal the Department took up the position that there were instructions by the Federal Government which had been adopted by the Provincial Government to the effect that a civil servant who has gone out of country on an assignment should not be promoted to the next grade unless and until he returned to Pakistan and earned one good report. The learned Tribunal took the view that these instructions were repugnant to the provisions of section 9 of the Punjab Civil Servants Act and Rules 4.13 and 10.5 of the Punjab Civil Service Rules, Volume I, Part I and that respondent No,1 was entitled to be considered for promotion with effect from the date the officer next junior to him was promoted. In view of this matter, it accepted the appeal and gave directions accordingly to the Department. The Provincial Government seeks leave to appeal from the judgment of the learned Tribunal.
3. The contention canvassed in support of these petitions is that promotion is not a matter of right and the learned Tribunal was wrong in holding that the instructions of the Federal Government as adopted by the Provincial Government violated the provision of section 9 of the Punjab Civil Servants Act and Rules 4.13 and 10.5 of the Civil Service Rules. This contention needs examination. It raises a question of law of considerable public importance for it will affect a very large number of civil servants who go on an assignment abroad and on return find that officers junior to them have been in the meanwhile promoted to high grades. Leave is therefore granted. The appeals may be made ready for hearing on the present record with permission to the parties to file additional documents, if any.