JUDGMENT

Pattanaik, J.-These appeals are directed against the common judgment of the Division Bench of the Rajasthan High Court in a bunch of writ petitions, which had been filed against the judgment and order of the Rajasthan Civil Services Appellate Tribunal in a bunch of appeals. The perennial problem of inter se seniority between the two sources has cropped up in these appeals, but the dispute in the present batch of cases is between the direct recruits and the surplus persons who were absorbed as Sales Tax Officers in the Sales Tax Department, the absorption having been made under the Absorption of Surplus Personnel Rules, 1969 (hereinafter referred to as the Absorption Rules ). The appellants are the direct recruits to the post of Commercial Tax Inspector and the recruitment to the said post is governed by a set of rules framed under the proviso to Article 309 of the Constitution called the Rajasthan Commercial Taxes Subordinate Service (General Branch) Rules, 1975 (hereinafter referred to as the Recruitment Rules). The private respondents herein had been appointed to the Land and Building Tax Department and they being found to be surplus personnel, they were absorbed under