JUDGMENT

SURINDER SINGH NIJJAR,J.

1. Leave granted in all the Special Leave Petitions.

2. These appeals are directed against the common judgment and final order dated 8th December, 2010 passed by the High Court of Judicature at Allahabad in Writ Petition Nos. 58206 of 2005 and in connected Writ Petition Nos. 58214, 59016, 59018, 59035 and 59758 of 2005, whereby the High Court has allowed all the Writ Petitions and set aside the Circular No. 17 of 2009 dated 30th November, 2009 and Circular dated 12th July, 2010 in so far as they make a provision to exclude the employees from consideration for promotion, who are otherwise eligible to be considered for promotion and are within the zone of consideration, on the basis that they have either obtained the ‘D’ rating in the annual performance report or have been penalized for any misconduct in the preceding 5 years.

Background:-

3. Before we take up for consideration, the issues involved, it would be appropriate to briefly notice the background leading to the present litigation.

4. There are currently about 82 Regional Rural Banks (for short “RRBs”) sponsored by various nationalized banks, set up under the Regional Rural Banks Act, 1976 (for s