Judgment

Sethi, J.-The dispute sought to be resolved in this appeal is regard­ing inter se seniority of the employees of the Central Administrative Tribunal (hereinafter referred to as “the CAT”) who were recruited from time to time as per requirement but came to be absorbed on the same day in terms of Section 5(1) of the Central Administrative Tribu­nal (Group B & C Miscellaneous Posts) Recruitment Rules, 1989 (herein­after referred to as “the Rules”). One set of emplo­yees claim their seniority from the date of their deputation to the aforesaid service of the CAT and the other set of employees pray for counting of the period of their service to the equivalent post held by them in their parent department, before their deputation and absorption in the service. On the application filed by respondent No. 1, the CAT accept­ed the former plea and directed the determination of the seniority of the employees of the CAT from the date of their deputation. Such directions were issued on the basis of the official memoranda and departmental instructions after holding that there did not exist any provision in the Rules for the purposes of determination of the sen­iority of persons recruited to