- (1.) Leave granted.
(2.) By the impugned judgment dated 13/12/1991 in L. P. A. No. 8 of 1985, the learned Judges of the division bench of the Jammu and Kashmir High court reversed the judgment of the learned Single Judge. As a result of the impugned judgment, the appellants, who were promoted as Assistant Engineers are in danger of being placed junior to persons who had obtained lower ranks than the appellants at the time of their appointment as Junior Engineers. At the time of selection to the post of Junior Engineers, the appellants were allotted higher ranks on the basis of merits in comparison to the respondents. Writ petition filed by some of thecandidates was rejected by the High court on the ground of laches and also for the reason that the selection had to be broad based. A similar petition was filed by the present respondents and it was dismissed by the learned Single Judge which was reversed by the impugned judgment.
(3.) The question which arises in the present appeal is whether or not candidates who were fully qualified to be appointed as Junior Engineers on the dates of interview, but whose results had not been declared on the dates of submission of their applications, were entitled to be considered for appointment to the post of Junior Engineer. If the answer is in the affirmative, the appellants who had become qualified on the dates of interview and had admittedly acquired higher marks in the interview were rightly appointed as Junior Engineers on the basis of their merits and were rightly promoted to the post of Assistant Engineer by reason of seniority in preference to the respondents who were also appointed as Junior Engineers and subsequently promoted, but placed junior to the appellants.;