JUDGMENT :

G.S. SISTANI, J.

1. The present writ petition has been filed by the petitioners being aggrieved by decision rendered by the Central Administrative Tribunal (‘Tribunal’) dated 25.04.2019 and the order passed in review application dated 19.08.2019.

2. The petitioners are aggrieved by a direction issued by the Tribunal to count nine months of ad-hoc service of the respondent to enable him to complete four years of regular service in the post of Assistant Provident Fund Commissioner (‘APFC’), which in turn would enable the respondent to receive the Senior Time Scale.

3. Some facts required to be noticed and which led to the filing of the OA before the Tribunal are that the respondent joined the services of petitioner No. 1 as Lower Division Clerk (LDC) and was promoted as Section Officer in the year 1997. The qualifying service for promotion to the post of APFC from feeder posts of Enforcement Officer/Accounts Officer is seven years ; and from feeder posts of Section Officer and Private Secretary is five years.

4. According to the petitioners, as per the Recruitment Rules 1991, APFCs are appointed against two categories i.e. Departmental Quota (DP) and Direct Recruitment Quota (D