Shiva Kirti Singh, J.

1. There are 12 petitioners in this writ application who were all clerks in the Commercial Taxes Department, Govt. of Bihar. Petitioners 1 to 5 are said to have retired from service during the pendency of the writ application. The claim of all the petitioners is for direction to the respondents to consider their cases and grant them junior selection grade by way of first time bound promotion with effect from due dates and also to consider their cases and grant them senior selection grade by way of second time bound promotion in terms of recommendation of the 4th pay revision committee accepted by the Govt. of Bihar vide resolution dated 30th December, 1981 (Annexure-2).

2. Had this case not been admitted and pending for such a long time I would have directed the petitioners to file separate writ application because of their different date of appointment and different dates from which they claim promotion. At times because of large number of petitioners it become very difficult to examine the individual cases of petitioners although they may be raising same or similar questions of law. In service matters generally law has to be applied with due regard t