V. State of U.P., [1981] 1 SCR 449 at 469 Krishna Iyer, J., had this say: "If a public servant services for a decade with distinction in a post known to be not a casual vacancy but a regular post known to be not a casual vacancy but a regular post, experimentally or otherwise kept as temporary under the time honoured classification, can it be that his long officiation turns to ashes like a Dead Sea fruit because of a label and his counterpart equal in all functional respects but with ten years less of service steals a march over him because his recruitment is to a temporary vacancy? We cannot anathematize officiation unless there are reasonable differentiations and limitations." PG NO 641 xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx "The normal rule consistent with equity is that officiating service, even before confirmation in service has relevancy to seniority if eventually no infirmities in the way of confirmation exists.