JUDGMENT

A.M. Ahmadi, CJI. - Leave granted in S.L.P. (Civil) No. 8726 of 1992.

2. These writ petitions, with a Civil Appeal, a Contempt Petition and a review petition have arisen out of several orders passed by this Court as well as by the High Court of Allahabad, coupled with certain acts and omissions on the part of the State of Uttar Pradesh. The main dispute relates to the seniority and promotion of employees in the clerical cadre of the Food and Civil Supplies Department of the State of Uttar Pradesh. The Uttar Pradesh Food and Civil Supply Department consists of 3 wings, viz., Marketing Wing, Supply Wing and Weights and Measures Wing. The head of all the three wings is the Commissioner, Food & Civil Supplies. The channels of promotion in the Marketing Wing and in the Supply Wing from the lower rank to the higher rank are as under :

Marketing Wing Supply Wing

Marketing Inspector Supply Inspector

Accountant/ Head Accountant/Head Clerk Clerk

Senior Clerk Sr. Accounts Clerk

Clerk Clerk

3. Appointment to the post of Marketing Inspectors and Supply Inspectors are made from two sources : (i) by direct recruitment; and (ii) by promotion from the lower cadres mentioned above, in the ratio of 1 : 1.

4. To put the facts chronologically, it would be proper to refer to an order of this Court dated 20.1.1984 in a batch of special leave petitions from the judgment and order of the High Court of Allahabad dated September 29, 1983 reported as Sheo Dutt Sharma v. State of U.P. & Others1. The petitioners in that group of petitions were promotees to the cadre of Marketing Inspectors. Although a seniority list was proposed to be prepared, promotions to the rank of Marketing Inspectors were occasionally made on temporary or on ad hoc basis during the procurement seasons, and reversions at the end of such seasons followed as a matter of course. As a large number of Marketing Inspectors were sought to be reverted in this process, they filed a Civil Miscellaneous Writ No. 6763 of 1983 in the High Court of Allahabad and obtained an interim stay from the vacation Judge and thus continued of function under Court orders as Marketing Inspectors. The Writ Petition was subsequently dismissed by a Division Bench of the High Court which held that the promotions were ad hoc and upto and inclusive of August 31, 1983 and therefore, they had no right to the post of Marketing Inspector. The High Court, however, ordered that those of the promotees who could be accommodated within the 50% quota for them in the regular posts, subject to reservations for Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes, should be so accommodated. The State of Uttar Pradesh submitted before this Court in appeal that a seniority list of clerical staff dated 10.1.1983 would be treated as the final seniority list and would be the basis for promotion to the regular post of Marketing Inspectors and that promotions for seasonal requirements would be made on ad hoc basis. This Court directed, vide order dated 20.1.1984, that such seasonal promotions must be made for specific terms and outside the quota of 50%. On behalf of the State of Uttar Pradesh, it was also submitted that individual claims of any error in the seniority list would be examined and the consequence reached on such examination would be given effect to.

5. The present proceedings have been initiated on behalf of the clerical staff of the Supply Wing, seeking promotion to the posts of Supply Inspectors. They allege that the State of Uttar Pradesh failed to give effect to the seniority list of the clerks and many of them had to approach the High Court and this Court for promotion to the posts of Supply Inspectors as the promotions to the post of Supply Inspectors were made without following the seniority list. One such order of the High Court was challenged by way of Special Leave Petition No. 3491/84 entitled Saroj Kumar Tyagi and Others v. State of Uttar Pradesh and Others on the ground that about 10