JUDGMENT

THOMMEN, J. (for himself and Ramaswami,J.)-

CIVIL APPEAL No. 5407 OF 1992

[Arising out of SLP (C) No. 12215 of 1992]

1. Leave granted.

2. By the impugned judgment dated December 13, 1991 in L.P.A. No. 8 of 1985, the learned Judges of the Division. Bench of the Jammu & Kashmir High Court reversed the judgment of the learned Single Judge. As a result of the impugned judgment, the appellants, who were promoted as Assistant Engineers are in danger of being placed junior to persons who had obtained lower ranks than the appellants at the time of their appointment as Junior Engineers. At the time of selection to the post of Junior Engineers, the appellants were allotted higher ranks on the basis of merits in comparison to the respondents. Writ petition filed by some of thecandidates was rejected by the High Court on the ground of laches and also for the reason that the selection had to be broad based. A similar petition was filed by the present respondents and it was dismissed by the learned Single Judge which was reversed by the impugned judgment.

3. The question which arises in the present appeal is whether or not candidates who were fully qualified to be appointed as Junior Enginee