Judgment :-

Altamas Kabir, J.

Leave granted.

2. The appellant Bank, which is a rural bank and is governed by the circulars issued from time to time by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (hereinafter referred to as NABARD), has challenged the decision of the Division Bench of the Gauhati High Court, allowing Writ Appeal No. 518 of 2002, and directing the appellant Bank to issue necessary orders for giving effect of promotion to the respondent No.1, Brijlal Dass, to the Officer Scale II Grade from the date his juniors in the Grade of Officers Scale I i.e. respondent Nos.17, 18 and 19, were promoted to the Officers Scale II.

3. In 1997 the appellant Bank categorized 17 additional Scale I branches as additional Scale II branches. The Bank, therefore, proposed to promote 17 Officers of the Scale I Grade to the Grade of Officers Scale II and issued a Circular to that effect on 10-6-2007. As per the eligibility criteria, all officers, who had put in minimum service of 8 years in the Officers cadre as on 31-12-1996, were eligible to appear for an interview for internal promotion. The total number of candidates would be restricted to 4 four times the number of vacancies. It was decided by the Bank that such promotion would be on the basis of merit-cum-seniority, and that out of a maximum of 150 marks 40 marks were set apart for the number of years in service. The remaining 110 marks were allocated towards performance at the work place and in the interview, indicating that the selection procedure was to be on the basis of merit-cum-seniority.

4. The case of the appellant Bank is that no reservation had been provided for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes candidates in the matter of promotion by selection from Scale I to Scale II and from Scale II to Scale III posts in Regional Rural Banks, and that candidates were generally subjected to interview/written tests. However, in order to provide some benefit to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes candidates a concession was included in the Circular dated 10-6-1997 which was in keeping with certain conditions which had been provided by the Circular dated 9-11-1994 issued by NABARD and also certain other Government Circulars. The said concession is set out hereinbelow:-

"Reservation Posts:-

The scheduled castes and scheduled tribes Officers, who are senior enough in the zone of consideration for promotion so as to be within the number of vacancies for which the select list has to be drawn up would be included in the list provided they are not considered unfit for promotion."

5. In terms of the said concession, officers belonging to Schedule Castes and Schedules Tribes, falling within the number of vacancies from the list drawn up on the basis of seniority, would be promoted to the Officers Scale II Grade automatically, provided they were not unfit for promotion.

6. At this stage it may be indicated that since 17 vacancies were available, 68 candidates were called for interviews for filling up the said 17 vacancies. The respondent No.1 did not fall within the first 17 names in the aforesaid list but was placed at S.No. 39 as per his seniority. As a result, though, he was called for interview, he was not automatically selected for promotion to the Scale II grade.

7. The respondent No.1 and one Shri Nagendra Chander Dass, both of whom figured in the list of 68 eligible candidates and were within the zone of consideration, were called for the interview but were not found fit for promotion. They, accordingly, filed civil Writ Petition No.1601 of 1998 for quashing the abovementioned Circular dated 15-9-1997 issued by the Bank on the basis whereof the successful candidates have been promoted and also prayed that since both of hem belong to the Scheduled Caste community they should have been appointed against the reserved posts and that the reservation policy followed by the Bank was contrary to the reservation policy followed by the Government of Assam.

8. The learned single Ju