Judgment

Raveendran, J. — These appeals by special leave against the judgments dated 14.8.2002 of the High Court of Kerala in W.A. No. 1178/1997, WA No. 1170/1997 and WA No. 1135/1997 involve common questions of fact and law.

2. The appellants and the private respondents were recruited as Lower Division Clerks (LDCs) in the Registration Department, in different districts of the State of Kerala. In the cadre hierarchy, the promotion post for LDCs is that of Upper Division Clerk (‘UDC’ for short). The post of LDC is a district-wise post and the post of UDC is a State-wise Post. In other words, the unit for recruitment of LDCs is the district and the unit for recruitment of UDCs is the entire State. A State-wise seniority list of LDCs is maintained for promotion to the post of UDCs.

3. The Appellants were recruited as LDCs in district X. The contesting private respondents were recruited as LDCs in other districts (say, district Y or district Z) and were transferred, on their own request to district X. (For convenience, we will refer to the appellants as ‘Local LDCs’ and the contesting private respondents as ‘transferred LDCs’). The transferred LDCs., on own request transfers, were permit