ORDER :

The lis in these writ petitions are rival claims for promotion between two categories of employees of the Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Limited (KPTCL), Assistant Engineers who were directly appointed and Assistant Engineers who were initially appointed as Junior Engineers, being non-graduates/Diploma holders, who later acquired B.E. or AIME (India) qualifications and ‘appointed by transfer’ as Assistant Engineers.

2. The KEB Recruitment and Promotion of the Employees of the Board Service Regulations, 1969, (hereinafter referred to as ‘KEB R & P Regulations’ for short) was amended as on 26.07.1986, to provide for recruitment to the post of Assistant Engineers, which till then provided for direct recruitment and by departmental promotion. By the amendment, provision was made for a Junior Engineer who had subsequently acquired B.E or AIME qualification to be appointed by transfer as Assistant Engineer. The transfer was to be effective from the date of graduation, subject to availability of vacancy without ignoring the inter se seniority among those eligible for such transfer. At note (v) appended to Sl.No.10A of Chapter V of the Regulations, it provided that a Junior