JUDGMENT :

Aravind Kumar, J.

1. Appellants are claiming promotion to the post of Superintendent BR Grade-I and Assistant Engineer as per Column 11 of General Reserve Engineer Force Group ‘C’ and Group ‘D’ Recruitment Rules, 1982 (hereinafter referred to as ‘GREF Rules, 1982’ for sake of brevity).

Short facts necessary for disposing of this appeal are crystallized as under :

Between 1977 and 1986, appellants came to be appointed to the posts of Overseers/Surveyor Draughtsman (Field and Topo) in accordance with the provisions of column No. 7 of GREF Rules, 1982. The next promotional post from Surveyor Draughtsman/Overseers is the post of Superintendent Grade-II. Petitioners were possessing ITI certificate at the time of their appointment as prescribed under Column 7 of Schedule I of GREF Rules, 1982. On being appointed they were given opportunity to pursue course in Diploma in Draughtsman Estimating and Design (DED, for short) at Government expenditure from CME Pune and were awarded Diploma certificate after completion of the course. Some of the appellants came to be promoted to Supe