Pre-amendment vacancies must be filled under existing service rules, with eligible employees considered on the annual panel.

Vacancies arising before an amendment to service rules must ordinarily be governed by the unamended rules in force when those vacancies accrued. Where the rules and executive instructions required an annual approved panel, eligible employees had to be considered against that year's panel for promotions or transfers from expected vacancies during its currency. Delay in preparing the panel until after the amendment could not defeat that consideration. The later amendment operated only prospectively for future vacancies. The SC sustained the direction to prepare a fresh panel for the relevant pre-amendment year, and the appeals failed.

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Issues: Whether vacancies that arose before amendment of the service rules had to be filled according to the unamended rules and an annual panel prepared for that year, so that eligible employees were considered for promotion on the basis of the earlier rules.

Analysis: The rules and executive instructions required preparation of an approved list annually in September, and promotions or transfers had to be made from that list against vacancies expected during its currency. The vacancies in question arose before the amendment of the service rules, and the delay in preparing the panel until after the amendment could not deprive eligible employees of consideration under the rules then in force. The later amendment governed only future vacancies and could not be applied to vacancies that had already accrued under the earlier regime.

Conclusion: The vacancies that arose before the amendment were governed by the unamended rules, and the candidates were entitled to be considered against a panel prepared for that year under those rules.

Final Conclusion: The appeals failed, and the order directing preparation of a fresh panel for the relevant pre-amendment year was sustained.

Ratio Decidendi: Vacancies must ordinarily be filled under the rules in force on the date they arise, and a subsequent amendment cannot retrospectively displace the right of eligible persons to be considered under the earlier rules.

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