§ SIR SEYMOUR KING (Hull, Central)To ask the Under-Secretary of State for India whether the Secretary of State has now considered the Memorial addressed to him by Mr. C. W. Allan, an extra Deputy Conservator of Forests in the Burma provincial service; whether Mr. Allan, after passing through the college at Dehra Dun, joined the Indian Forest Service on 1st February, 1887, at a time when it was provided by Section 21 of the then Forest Department Code that, after five years approved service as Sub-assistant Conservator of Forests, he would be drafted into the upper controlling staff whether he is aware that in 1891 the Government issued a new Forest Department reorganisation scheme debarring all officers thenceforward appointed in India from promotion to the upper controlling staff; that, having done four years of admittedly approved service, the new scheme was by ex post facto ruling applied to Mr. Allan's case; whether he is aware that recently the Secretary of State for India has sanctioned the transfer of Mr. Shrish Chandra Chakrabatti from the provincial to the Imperial engineering service on the ground that, as he had actually entered the Sibpur Engineering College before the issue of the orders closing the Imperial service to students of Indian engineering colleges, he had an equitable right to an 919 appointment in the Imperial service; will he state on what ground, in an analagous case, Mr. Allan has been refused similar treatment; and whether the Government of India will be directed to remedy the grievance from which Mr. Allan is suffering.
(Answered by Mr. Buchanan.) The Secretary of State has considered Mr. Allan's Memorial and has decided not to interfere with the orders of the Government of India refusing to promote him to the Imperial Forest Service. The Government of India have found that the rules in force in 1887 did not guarantee to Mr. Allan that he would be drafted into the upper controlling staff after five years approved service, but merely made him eligible for selection for such promotion on the ground of special merit. In the reorganisation of 1891 it was held, after consideration, that Mr. Allan had no claim as of right to be promoted to the Imperial Service. He was therefore placed in the Provincial Service, and the Government of India, having regard to his training and abilities have declined to promote him to the Imperial Service. The case of Mr. Shrish Chandra Chakrabatti stands on quite a different footing and was governed by other rules.