O.P. Garg, J. - (1.) By means of the present writ petition, under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, it is prayed that the order dated 17.6.1995 (Annexure 6 to the writ petition) as well as the final seniority list published on the same day by respondent No. 2, be quashed and the respondents be commanded to redetermine the seniority of the petitioner in service.
(2.) Counter and rejoinder-affidavits have been filed. Heard Sri Arun Tandon, learned counsel for the petitioner and Sri V. B. Misra, learned counsel for the respondents, at considerable length.
(3.) Initially the petitioner was appointed on contractual basis as Junior Engineer in Non-Conventional Energy Development Agency, Uttar Pradesh, Lucknow (for short the N.E.D.A.) and was posted in Solar Cold Storage at Baisali, Deoria in the year 1988 for a fixed period of three and a half years. The period of contractual appointment was extended by two more months. Subsequently. 79 posts of Junior Engineers were sanctioned on 30.10.1991. Fresh appointments and regularisation of the services of the employees working from before were made. The petitioner came to be appointed on regular basis for the first time with effect from 10.10.1991 and seniority list of the newly recruited and regularised candidates was drawn up in which the petitioner was shown at serial No. 56. The petitioner made a representation before the competent authority praying that the services rendered by him on contractual basis during the period 1988 onwards, be also reckoned for the purposes of determining the seniority. Since the petitioner could not get the relief from the department, he filed the present writ petition for the relief as aforesaid.;