JUDGMENT ALTAMAS KABIR, J. : - Pursuant to Advertisement No.2 of 1983 published by it, the Andhra Pradesh Public Service Commission conducted recruitment to Group l1(A) services and upon completion of the process of selection, the selected candidates were appointed in 1985 itself. In keeping with GOMs No. 502 dated 26 -6 -1976, 5% weightage marks were awarded to candidates who had obtained their basic qualifications through Telugu medium. The same was challenged before the Andhra Pradesh High Court by non -Telugu medium candidates in a writ petition, being No. 2041 of 1981, which was allowed by the learned Single Judge by his judgment dated 7 -6 -1981. By the said judgment and order the learned Single Judge quashed the aforesaid government order on the ground that it was discriminatory and violative of Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution. 2. Two writ appeals were filed against the order of the learned Single Judge, one by the State of Andhra Pradesh and the other by the Telugu medium candidates. Both the writ appeals were heard analogously by a Division Bench of the Andhra Pradesh High Court which by its judgment and order dated 15 -9 -1981 allowed the writ appeals and upheld the government orders whereby 5% weightage in total marks was given to Telugu medium candidates, upon holding that the same did not violate Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution. Consequently, the writ petition filed by the non -Telugu medium candidates was dismissed. The same resulted in the filing of Civil Appeal No. 29/14/1981, V . Sunanda Reddy vs. State of A.P., in this Court. Subsequently, the State of And Pradesh issued a more comprehensive Government Order No. 603 dated 18 -11 -1981 and extended 5% weightage to all Telugu medium students who we candidates for recruitment by the Andhra Pradesh Public Service Commission any service in the State of Andhra Pradesh. The statutory rules framed in term~ the said government order were once again challenged by non -Telugu medium candidates before the Andhra Pradesh Administrative Tribunal at Hyderaba The Tribunal by its order dated 18 -1 -1994 allowed the said application filed b the non -Telugu medium candidates upon holding, as was done in the earlier matter, that the said government order was violative of Articles 14 and 16 of t Constitution. As will be apparent, the view taken by the Tribunal Was contrary t the decision of the Division Bench of the Andhra Pradesh High Court and the resulted in a special leave petition (civil), being No. 6395 of 1994 filed by to Telugu medium candidates and by the State of Andhra Pradesh by way of Special Leave Petition (C) No. 13446 of 1994. As the question involved in both the matters was the same, they were taken up together for hearing by this Court an were disposed of by a common judgment dated 25 -1 -1995. 3. Although, at the time of the hearing of the appeals, it was sought to urged on behalf of the State that the weightage had been given in the interest 0 the State to enable it to recruit persons who are better acquainted with Telug language, which was the official language of the State, such a stand was rejected and it was held that the Division Bench of the Andhra Pradesh High Court wa not right when it accepted such a view. This Court further held that the Division Bench was not justified in upsetting the views expressed by the learned Single Judge. 4. While disposing of the said appeals, this Court took note of a submission made on behalf of Telugu medium students that in the event the weightage give to them in recruitment was found to be faulty, those Telugu medium candidate who had already been appointed on the basis of such weightage should not b disturbed and it was also submitted that those Telugu medium students whose appointments could not be made on account of pendency of the proceeding should be given one further chance to compete for future recruitment for the post in question and for that purpose suitable age relaxation may be made in their case. Finding such submission to be reasonable, this Court observed and directed as follows: "In our view this request is quite reasonable and deserves to be granted. Finding such submission to be reasonable, this Court observed and directed as follows: "In our view this request is quite reasonable and deserves to be granted. We, therefore, direct that despite our finding that 5 per cent weightage given to the Telugu medium graduates in the present case is violative of Articles 14 and 16(1) of the Constitution, those Telugu medium graduates who have already been appointed on the strength of such weightage and who are working on their posts concerned should not be disturbed and their appointments will not be adversely affected by the present judgment. On the other hand, those Telugu medium graduates who have been selected on the strength of the weightage but to whom actual appointments have not been given on account of pendency of the present proceedings should be given a chance to compete for such posts as and when future recruitment to such posts is resorted to and for that purpose only once suitable age relaxation may be given to them in case they are otherwise found suitable on merits to be appointed in such future direct recruitment to such posts. In other words, only on account of the fact that they have become age -barred, they should not be denied appointments on the strength of their meritorious performance. This will be by way of only one -time concession about age relaxation." 5. Consequently, Civil Appeal No. 2914 of 1981 was allowed, the judgment and order of the Division Bench was set aside and the decision of the learned Single Judge was restored and the civil appeals arising out of SLPs (C) Nos. 6395 and 13446 of 1994 were dismissed and the judgment and order of the Andhra Pradesh Administrative Tribunal at Hyderabad in OA No. 2142 of 1993 were confirmed. 6. 6395 and 13446 of 1994 were dismissed and the judgment and order of the Andhra Pradesh Administrative Tribunal at Hyderabad in OA No. 2142 of 1993 were confirmed. 6. Despite the views expressed by this Court in the above appeals, the matter was not allowed to rest and one K. Sudharshan Reddy, respondent 1 before us in Civil Appeal No. 4202 of 2003 and Shri Y. T. Naidu, who is respondent 1 before us in Civil Appeal No. 4201 of 2003, filed separate applications before the Andhra Pradesh Administrative Tribunal, being OA No. 6141 of 1995 and OA No. 2470 of 2001, under section 19 of the Administrative Tribunals Act, 1985, complaining that the respondents had acted in a manner contrary to law by giving the advantage of weightage marks while preparing the merit list for preparation of the seniority list in view of the aforesaid judgment of this Court. It was the contention of the said applicants that the direction that the services of those Telugu medium candidates who had been appointed on account of the weightage given should not be disturbed, did not include any condition that such candidates were to be given the benefit of weightage of 5% of the total marks also for the purpose of computing seniority. In other words, it was sought to be contended that the protection given by the aforesaid judgment of this Court to Telugu medium students, who had already been selected with the benefit of weightage, was only to the extent of their appointment and that for their ranking in the merit list, the additional 5% marks could not be counted. 7. The said argument advanced on behalf of the said two respondents found favour with the Tribunal which was persuaded to hold that the protection afforded to the Telugu medium candidates did not extend to the counting of such weightage for the purpose of determining seniority in the cadre. The learned Tribunal, therefore, directed the Government to take follow -up action to reduce the weightage marks given to the Telugu medium candidates and to prepare the new ranking list and to fix the seniority on the basis thereof. 8. Both the original applications were disposed of by the Tribunal by its aforesaid judgment and order dated 23 -5 -2001 which were challenged before the Andhra Pradesh High Court by way of Writ Petitions Nos. 8. Both the original applications were disposed of by the Tribunal by its aforesaid judgment and order dated 23 -5 -2001 which were challenged before the Andhra Pradesh High Court by way of Writ Petitions Nos. 16321 of 2001 and 16283 of 2001. Both the writ petitions were dismissed by identical orders with the observation that the Tribunal had merely followed the judgment of this Court and the impugned order did not, therefore, suffer from any legal infirmity. These two appeals before us have been filed by the Andhra Pradesh Public Service Commission against the orders passed in the said writ petitions and since they involve common questions of law and fact, the same have been taken up together for hearing and disposal. 9. Appearing for the appellant Commission, Mr. Ranjit Kumar, learn Senior Advocate, took us through the relevant portions of the directions given b this Court which have been quoted hereinbefore and tried to explain the tru meaning and purport thereof, which according to him, had been completed misunderstood both by the Tribunal, as also by the Andhra Pradesh High Court. Mr. Kumar emphasised on the use of the expression, "those Telugu medium graduates who have already been appointed 0 the strength of such weightage and who are working on their post concerned should not be disturbed and their appointments will not b adversely affected by the present judgment" (emphasis supplied) He emphasised that the said direction could be broken up into three parts i order to understand and appreciate their true meaning and purport. It w submitted that this Court included in the scope of its order Telugu medium candidates who had already been appointed 00 the strength of the weightage given. Secondly, those persons who were working on their posts concerned should not be disturbed and thirdly their appointments were not to be adversely affected. Mr. Kumar added that a conscious distinction had been made by th Court in respect of those Telugu medium graduates who had been selected on the strength of the weightage but to whom actual appointments had not been given Mr. Mr. Kumar added that a conscious distinction had been made by th Court in respect of those Telugu medium graduates who had been selected on the strength of the weightage but to whom actual appointments had not been given Mr. Kumar submitted that in their case the Court directed that they should given a chance to compete for such posts when future recruitment to such post was required and for that purpose only once suitable age relaxation could given to them in case they were otherwise found suitable on merit to be appointed in future to such posts. 10. In addition to his aforesaid submission on the merits of the views expressed by the Tribunal and the Division Bench of the Andhra Pradesh High Court, Mr. Kumar also urged that if the judgment and order of tpe Tribunal an the High Court were allowed to stand, it would result in unsettling of the eritire seniority position which prevailed in 1981 in different services throughout th State and the same would lead to a chaotic situation. It was submitted that such an action could hardly be undertaken at such a distant point of time. 11. In support of his said submission, Mr. Kumar referred to the decision of this Court in Prabodh Verma vs. State of U.P., (1984) 4 see 251 wherein in para 28 such a scenario has been considered, discussed and dilated upon. 12. Reference was also made to a decision of this Court in Arun Tewari vs . Zila Mansavi Shikshak Sangh, (1998) 2 see 332 wherein with reference to the aforesaid case, similar views have been expressed. 13. Mr. M. N. Rao, learned Senior Advocate, who appeared for respondent 1 in both the matters, on the other hand, strongly supported the view expressed by the Tribunal. 14. Mr. Rao submitted that having held that the government order granting weightage of 5% marks to Telugu medium candidates was violative of Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution, it could never have been the intention 0 this Court to perpetuate such arbitrariness and all that was protected by this Courts order were the appointments which had been made in favour of such Telugu medium candidates who had been given the benefit of weightage in terms of the government orders concerned. According to Mr. According to Mr. Rao, to hold otherwise would be to negate the very decision of this Honable Court in the earlier matter. 15. It was further urged that the revision of the seniority list could always be done at any stage since all the required particulars were available in the office . of the authorities concerned. 16. Referring to the decision of this Court in Ajit Singh (II) vs. State of Punjab, (1999) 7 SCC 209 Mr. Rao submitted that while discussing "the catch up role", it was observed that there should not be any difficulty in amending the seniority list since the seniority list at a particular level would have to be amended only when the senior general candidates reach the said level. 17. Mr. Rao urged that this Court had held that such weightage was arbitrary and that the addition of 40 marks which represented 5% of the total aggregate marks would give the Telugu medium candidates a strong advantage over candidates from other mediums, particularly when competition was fierce and even one mark could tilt the decision in favour of a candidate. 18. Having carefully considered the submissions made on behalf of the respective parties, we are unable to agree with the submissions advanced by Mr. Rao since in our view, after having held the impugned government order to be violative of Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution, it was the intention of this Court to maintain the status quo as it existed with regard to the appointments already made where certain candidates had already been given the benefit of weightage. We are inclined to agree with Mr. Ranjit Kumar that the Court intended to protect not only the appointments of such candidates but also all their service conditions, which included their right to seniority as had accrued to them at the time of their initial appointment. In our view, the said intention of this Court was quite clear from the language used. If this Court had intended that the weightage given to the candidates concerned was not to count towards their position in the merit list, it would have said so explicitly. On the other hand, while mentioning the fact of their appointment on the strength of such weightage this Court went on to say that such candidates would not be adversely affected by the judgment. On the other hand, while mentioning the fact of their appointment on the strength of such weightage this Court went on to say that such candidates would not be adversely affected by the judgment. In other words, the decision rendered in the judgment would not adversely affect their existing service conditions. 19. Furthermore, the question of seniority was never in question prior to the decision of this Court in Civil Appeal No. 2914/1981 (supra) decided on 25 -11995. 20. Apart from the above, the other submission of Mr. Ranjit Kumar regarding the difficulty of unsettling the settled position after all these years cannot also be lightly brushed aside. 21. For the reasons aforesaid, the appeals must succeed and are allowed. The judgment and order of the Andhra Pradesh High Court appealed against are hereby set aside along with the judgment and order dated 23 -5 -2001 passed by the Andhra Pradesh Administrative Tribunal passed in OAs Nos. 6141 of 1995 and 2470 of 200 1. 22. There will be no order as to costs. Appeals allowed.