JUDGMENT

Shrikant D. Kulkarni, J. - Rule. Rule made returnable forthwith. With the consent of the parties, heard finally at admission stage.

2. The petitioner an Assistant Professor is seeking directions to participate in the process of promotional post of Associate Professor by invoking the extra ordinary jurisdiction under Article 226 of the Constitution of India.

3. The factual matrix of the case is as under:

3(i) The petitioner was appointed as a Junior Research Assistant on 30.05.2006 on the establishment of Respondent No.2 / Vasantrao Naik Marathwada Krishi Vidyapeeth, Parbhani. (hereinafter referred to as the "University"). After working for certain period on the post of Junior Research Assistant, the petitioner was selected on the post of Senior Research Assistant on 27.09.2007 on the basis of merit. He continued to work on the said post till 02.08.2011. On 03.08.2011, the petitioner came to be promoted for a period of 11 months on the vacant post of Assistant Professor in the Department of Agronomy by considering his seniority, merit, educational qualification and annual confidential reports, as per the Statute 74 of the Maharashtra Agricultural Universities (Krishi Vidyapeet