Per DESHPANDE A.P., J.: - A conflict in the views expressed by two Division Benches of this Court was noticed by one of us and hence, a reference was made to the Honourable the Chief Justice with a request to refer the matter to a Bench comprising of more than two Judges. This Full Bench is constituted pursuant to the said reference. We formulate the point of reference as herein below :

"For promotion to the post of Head Master of a Primary School, whether seniority of the teacher is to be counted from the date of initial appointment, or from date of acquisition of educational and training qualification ?"

2. In a judgment reported in 2003(Supp.) Bom.C.R. (N.B.)785 : 2003(3) Mh.L.J. 438, in case of (Chintaman Ramaji Mahakalkar v. Education Officer (Primary), Zilla Parishad, Wardha and others) I , the Division Bench held that the seniority of primary school teachers has to be determined on the basis of date of joining service and continuous officiation irrespective of the date of acquiring D.Ed. qualification, whereas a contrary view is expressed in another Division Benchjudgmen1 ofthis Court reported in 2003(3) Mh.L.J. 206 in case of (Rajhans Narayanrao ShahapurE others v. Prabhavati

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