ORDER

The petitioner was promoted is Inspector of Police on July 10, 1973 and was further promoted as Deputy Superintendent of Police on April 8, 1982. The contesting respondents were directly recruited as Deputy Superintendents on March 25, 1982. Their inter-se seniority is regulated by Rule 25 of the Mizoram Police Service Rules, 1986. Rules 25 reads as under :

"25. Seniority.-The Administrator shall prepare a list of members of the Service arranged in order of seniority as determined in the manner specified below :

(i) (a) Persons recruited on the results of the competitive examination in any year shall be ranked INTER SE in the order of merit in which they are placed at the competitive examination on the results of which they are recruited, those recruited on the basis of an earlier examination being ranked senior to those recruited on the basis of a later examination.

(b) The relative seniority INTER SE of persons recruited by selection shall be determined on the basis of the order in which their names are arranged in the list prepared under rule 13, those recruited on the basis of an earlier selection being ranked senior to those recruited on the