- (1.) These batch of appeals arise out of a common judgment and order dated 5th March, 2012 passed in 4 separate writ petitions by a Learned Single Judge of this Court.
(2.) The substance of the dispute in the 4 writ petitions before the Learned Single Judge pertained to promotion and seniority of a section of employees in the Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA) and the Kolkata Metropolitan Water and Sanitation Authority (KMWSA). The employees in the KMDA who are diploma engineers in the posts of technical assistants and their counterparts in the KMWSA who are in the posts of Sub-Assistant Engineers are aggrieved by the retrospective promotions and seniority granted to qualified engineers within their cadre on repatriation to their parent bodies after serving on deputation at several Urban Local Bodies (ULBs).
(3.) The Learned Single Judge was, inter alia, pleased not to disturb the promotions already granted to the writ petitioners at the point of sending them on deputation. However, the Learned Single Judge was pleased to direct the authorities to compute the seniority of each of the employees in the promotional cadre of the parent department, including the deputationists with reference to their standing in the gradation list in the base cadre. It is relevant to record in this regard that the promotional rule of seniority in both the KMDA and the KMWSA is on the principle of seniority-cum-merit which applies to the employees who are before this Court.;