Judgment

OZA, J.:- These writ petitions filed by the petitioners challenge the inter se seniority of the officers in the higher judicial service coming from two sources; i) promoted from the judicial service and ii) others who are directly recruited from the Bar.

2. The petitioners are officers of the State Judicial Service who have been promoted on various dates to the higher judicial service and posted as Additional District Judges or some of them were posted as Civil and Sessions Judges before 1974 as in 1974 the post of Civil and Sessions Judge has been abolished and the higher judicial service for the State of Uttar Pradesh was constituted.

3. According to the petitioners they were promoted to officiate as Additional District and Sessions Judges on various dates and they continue to officiate as such, they were confirmed and on their confirmation they have been given the seniority not from the date of their continuous officiation but from some other date chosen by the High Court arbitrarily. And because of which, they have been put in the seniority list much below those officers appointed by direct recruitment and who were appointed much after the petitioners. According to the pe