' SHAFIUR RAHMAN, J.---Leave to appeal was granted to examine whether the appellant's case before the Service Tribunal had not received that A individualised attention which it deserved being distinguishable from those of his colleagues Kh. Mahmood Ahmad, Abdul Latif and Muhammad Yousuf.
2. The appellant joined service as a Clerk in the Railways Accounts Department in July, 1941. He passed the Subordinate Accounts Service Examination and was promoted as Assistant Accounts Officer on 10-5-1960/7-1-1961. There existed a rule (Paragraph 121 of the Pakistan Government Railway Code for the Accounts Department, Part-1 hereinafter referred to as the Code) which provided for officiating promotion of such Class II Officers to a senior Class I post of Divisional Accountant ignoring the intermediary cadre of Grade-17 of Junior Accounts Officers. The appellant was granted pro forma/officiating promotion from 1-11-1966 to 3-9-1968 and thereafter continued working on that post subsequently. When the seniority list of Grade-18 officers was published on 11th of March, 1976, his name was omitted therefrom. He filed a representation and then an appeal with regard to such an omission and getting no redress from the Department preferred an appeal to the Tribunal. There were other colleagues of the appellant who had also been similarly promoted but their promotion was described at times ad hoc and they were denied the relief of being placed in Grade-18. The appellant distinguished his case by pointing out that his promotion was expressed to be regular, that it had taken place with the approval of the Public Service Commission and that the Rules made provision for such a promotion. Hence, he could not be excluded from the Grade-18 seniority list. The appellant retired from service on 4-10-1982 from the post of Deputy Chief Accounts Officer.
3. Mr. Mushtaq Masood, Advocate, the learned counsel for the appellant has advanced the case of the appellant by relying on Paragraph 121(1)(b) of the Code which made provision for such promotion and the regularisation of such promotion and the grant of pro forma promotion from an earlier date.
4. Paragraphs 120 and 121 of the Code whose interpretation and application is required for determining the claim of the appellant are as hereunder:-- "120. The Pakistan Railway Accounts Service. ---Recruitment to the Pakistan Railway Accounts Service is made in the following manner:--
(a) on the results of a competitive examination held in Pakistan;
(b) by the promotion of specially qualified members of the Class II services and non-gazetted railway servants in the Accounts Department; and
(c) by transfer from another service. Of the total number of vacancies to be filled in any year 20 per cent. Is reserved for the promotion of Assistant Accounts Officers and specially qualified non- gazetted railway servants.
121. Appointment. Promotion and Leave. --(1) Pakistan Railway Accounts Service---
(a) persons selected for appointment to the Pakistan Railway Accounts Service on the results of a competitive examination will be appointed as probationary Accounts Officers and will be required to undergo a' practical training for a minimum period of two years as detailed in Appendix I. At the conclusion of the above period, probationary Accounts Officers who have passed the departmental examination prescribed by Financial Adviser (Communications) will be eligible for confirmation in the Department. Failure to pass the examination within a period of three years after recruitment shall involve loss of appointment. But if the first examination is held within six months of a probationer's joining the service, it will not be taken into account and the period of three years will be extended to allow one further chance.
(b) The posts of Senior Accounts Officers will be filled by the promotion of Junior Accounts Officers.
When no Junior Accounts -Officer is available or can be made available without conflicting with the interests of the administration, an Assistant Accounts Officer may be appointed to officiate as a Senior Accounts Officer.
(c) With a view to facilitating contact with officers of the superior service on leave all such officers should, before proceeding on leave report to the Financial Adviser (Communications) through the General Manager of the Railway on which they are employed at that time, their addresses during leave.
(2) Assistant Accounts Officer.---The posts of Assistant Accounts Officers will be filled by selection from non-gazetted railway servants who have passed the examination prescribed in Appendix III or are exempted from passing that examination, provided that an employee mentioned in paragraph In, who was less than 40 years of age on the lst April, 1920 shall not be eligible for promotion to the grade of Assistant Accounts Officer unless he passes the said examination."
5. In order to establish that in terms of paragraph 121(1)(b) of the Code no Junior Accounts Officer was available at relevant time, reference has been made by the learned counsel to the written statement of the Department where this fact has been admitted. This rule, however, is not of avail to the appellant because what it provides for is only for officiating promotion. It makes no reservation for the category of subordinates like the appellant nor provides for confirmation against the post on which they are promoted.' It only allowed them the opportunity to officiate and in this case the appellant and his colleagues have officiated with full pay of the post. Regular promotion under section 9 of the Civil Servants Act could take place against the reserved quota alone. The reserved quota existed under paragraph 120; for Junior Class I Officers in the grade of Assistant Accounts Officers and specially qualified non-gazetted railway servants to the extent of 20 per cent and 80 per cent for Junior Class I of the Railway Accounts Service.
6. A more intelligible and illustrative instance of this rule/paragraph, or such a rule, appears to be that of District and Sessions Judges on the Judicial side where at one stage, not more than 1/3rd were to be recruited from the Bar, not more than 1/3rd to be transferred from the Central Services and not less than 1/3rd to be promoted from the subordinate Judicial Officers. On account of delayed appointment from the Bar and on account of non availability of Central Superior Service Officers from the executive side, the subordinate Judicial Officers were officiating beyond 1/3rd quota but beyond the quota, they were not entitled to count their officiation period as the service' rendered in that Grade, nor for purposes of seniority though they got the benefit of the pay and post otherwise.
Similarly, in this case, the officiating charge could be given to the appellant but he could not be considered a part of the cadre. It is further clear from the fact that ultimately he was inducted in the Junior Class I cadre of Assistant Accounts Officer and promoted against the reserved quota and such promotion against the quota happened to be at a date subsequent to the date when he was promoted in fact on officiating basis on 1-11-1966.
7. The law applicable to such a promotion was expressed in Khushi Muhammad and 3 others v. The General Manager (now Vice-Chairman)' Pakistan Western Railway, Headquarters Office, Lahore and 27 others PLD 1970 SC 203. In that case the following law was laid down:--- "In fact, it is wholly against all notions of natural justice that persons who join service in a grade first should be relegated to a junior position as against those who join later, merely because they fill vacancies which were 'deemed to be reserved for them. In our view, the ratio of 50:50 between the direct recruits and the departmental promotees merely relates to the policy of their recruitment to the grade and is not to be extended to the fixation of their seniority on their confirmation inter se. All the incumbents have to be treated at par in the matter of their seniority in the grade after they enter it. There is no rule that confirmation in the grade is also to be made by rotation, that is to say, one direct recruit and one departmental promotee, have to be alternatively confirmed. Again, no rule has been shown to us that an incumbent holding a post in the grade in a temporary or officiating capacity should rank lower in point of seniority to one who is appointed later in the same capacity against a reserved post in the same grade."
' This judgment of the Supreme Court was delivered on 13th of February, 1970 and it was followed in December, 1970 by the General Principles of Seniority (Estacode 1983 Edition, page 154) providing as hereunder:- "The seniority of departmental promotees to the higher grade shall count from the date of their regular promotion to the higher grade. The word regular implies:
(a) that the promotions to higher grades were made in vacancies reserved for departmental promotion in accordance with the prescribed roster;"
8. This was followed by the Civil Servants Act, 1973, section 9 providing as hereunder:--- "9. Promotion.---(1) A civil servant possessing such minimum qualifications as may be prescribed shall be eligible for promotion to a higher post for the time being reserved under the rules for departmental promotion in the service or cadre to which he belongs.
(2) A post referred to in subsection (1) may either be a selection post or a non-selection post to which promotion shall be made as may be prescribed---
(a) in the case of a selection post, on the basis of selection on merit
(b) in the case of a non-selection post, on the basis of seniority-cumfitness."
9. Seniority being not a vested right under the Civil Servants Act (section 8), section 9 of the Civil Servants Act will govern alongwith General Principles' of Seniority, the matter under consideration.
10. The words "to officiate" used in para. 121(1)(b) of the Code mean to act or to discharge an office for or on behalf of some other person. Where a reservation or a quota for promotion existed, and as pointed out in para 120 o the Code it is not in public interest to fill that post from outside the prescribed quota, either on account of its non-availability of officers or otherwise, then an officiating arrangement from a residual source is made. As soon as compliance with the paragraph 120 of the Code is possible, the arrangement is brought to an end. In this case exactly that has been happened. That appellant himself was subsequently placed in junior Class I for which reservation existed and was promoted through proper channel. His contention that at one stage the post of Assistant Accounts Officer was upgraded into Class-I post, would not entitle him to claim absorption in a grade Class-I service having its own cadre and E Grade. The induction into a service as a Class-I Officer is one thing and to be a Class-I post-holder is another.
11. We find that a promotion on the strength of paragraph 121(1)(b) o the Code did not entitle the appellant to claim seniority in the higher promoted grade. He had to wait till in accordance with the reservation and the quota a vacancy became available for him in accordance with the provision made in para 120 of the Code. It happened subsequently. Therefore, the appellant could not claim induction in Grade-18 seniority list in 1976 notwithstanding his officiating .Promotion under paragraph 121(1)(b) of the Code much earlier. His case like those of his colleagues, notwithstanding the use of the word "ad hoc" or absence of it, continues to be governed by paras 120 and 121(1)(b) of the Code and by no other provision, read with General Principles of Seniority and section 9 of the Civil Servants Act.
12. The appeal is dismissed with no order as to costs.