JUDGMENT

Dalveer Bhandari, J. —

1. This appeal emanates from the judgment and order of the Division Bench of the High Court of Karnataka at Bangalore delivered in Writ Petition No. 19516 of 2004.

2. Brief facts which are relevant to dispose of this appeal are recapitulated as under:

3. The controversy in this appeal pertains to the promotion to the post of Principal Scientist under the “Career Advancement Scheme” formulated by the Indian Council for Agricultural Research (hereinafter referred to as `ICAR’). There are two streams from which selections are made to the post of Principal Scientist: (i) Direct recruitment; and (ii) Promotion from the post of Senior Scientist on the basis of personal merit.

4. The ICAR had formulated the “Career Advancement Scheme” in consultation with the Department of Personnel & Training and Ministry of Finance, Government of India laying down guidelines for promotion of a Scientist from one grade to another in the Agricultural Research Services (ARS) cadre, which were made effective from 27.7.1998. The promotion of scientist to the next higher grade (Principal Scientist) is independent of the occurrence of vacancies and is based only when the applica