JUDGMENT

VERMA, J.—These appeals involve for decision a common question, relating to fixation of seniority of certain Sub-Assistant Engineers appointed ad hoc temporary Assistant Engineers for a specified period in the PWD and the Irrigation and Waterways Department of the Government of West Bengal, vis-a-vis the direct recruits in the cadre of Assistant Engineers appointed regularly according to rules in these departments prior to the regularisation of the ad hoc appointees. The question was raised by the ad hoc appointees who were regularised subsequently, by filing writ petitions in the Calcutta High Court claiming revision of their seniority, reckoned from the date of their initial ad hoc appointment. These writ petitions were dismissed by a single bench of the High Court but the writ appeals were allowed by a division bench, resulting in grant of the relief claimed by the ad hoc appointees. It is these judgments, involving the common question of the merit of the claim of the ad hoc appointees for seniority, reckoned from the date of their initial ad hoc appointment, in the facts and circumstances of the case, which are challenged in these appeals.

2. Civil Appeal No. 3607 of 19