Amitava Roy, C.J. - (1.) THIS writ petition has been filed by the petitioner seeking quashing of order dt. 09.08.1999 (Annexure -6), whereby, respondent No. 3 Babu Lal Jain and respondent No. 4 Manoj Kumar -Senior Personal Assistant -cum -Judgment Writers ('Sr. P.A.') were promoted as Private Secretary -cum -Judgment Writers ('P.S.') on officiating basis for a period of six months and order dt. 10.08.2001 (Annexure -R/3), whereby, petitioner's representation dt. 16.08.1999 against Annexure -6 was rejected and direction to accord promotion to the petitioner as per his seniority with effect from the date when vacancies of P.S. arose on 01.04.1999/01.05.1999 or at least w.e.f. 09.08.1999 with all consequential benefits in his favour. The facts in brief, as alleged by the petitioner are that he joined the service as Stenographer Grade -II on 13.01.1992. He was accorded ad hoc/temporary promotion on the post of Personal Assistant ('P.A.') on 22.12.1993. In the qualifying test held for promotion, the petitioner with others passed the same and was accorded promotion on the post of Personal Assistant -cum -Judgment Writer on 24.10.1994 and the order of seniority was as follows: - - English [1] Mangi Lal Tinwar [2] Mohd. Mustafa Ansari (petitioner) [3] Manoj Kumar (respondent No. 4) [4] Pankaj Baweja (respondent No. 5) Hindi [1] Babu Lal Jain (respondent No. 3).
(2.) THEREAFTER , on 20.10.1997 promotions were accorded to others on the post of Sr. P.A. and petitioner was excluded on account of pendency of departmental enquiry. Promotion was accorded to him on the post of Sr. P.A. on 01.09.1998. It was claimed by the petitioner that on 01.04.1999 a vacancy of P.S. occurred due to retirement of Mr. B.L. Dave, and another vacancy arose on 01.05.1999 on account of retirement of Mr. Amarpal Singh. Thereafter, vide impugned order dt. 09.08.1999 promotions were accorded on the said two posts of P.S. to respondent Nos. 3 and 4 respectively, which is put in question in the present writ petition. It may be noticed that during the pendency of the writ petition vide order dt. 10.08.2001, the representation of the petitioner was accepted and he was accorded promotion to the post of Sr. P.A. w.e.f. 20.10.1997 instead of 01.09.1998, however, his representation for assigning seniority over Babu Lal Jain (respondent No. 3) was rejected; the representation made by the petitioner against order dt. 09.08.1999 (Annexure -6) was rejected by order dt. 10.08.2001 (Annexure -R/3). The writ petition was thereafter amended and petitioner sought quashing of the order Annexure -R/3 also. The term period of promotions granted on ad hoc basis on 09.08.1999 has been extended till further orders.
(3.) THE contention of the petitioner in the writ petition is that on the date when promotion was accorded to respondent Nos. 3 and 4 i.e. 09.08.1999, there was nothing adverse against him and as he was senior to respondent Nos. 3 and 4, there was no reason for over looking him for promotion to the post of P.S.;