( 1 ) BEING aggrieved by the decision of the respondents-Authorities, the petitioner has filed this writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of india, seeking directions against the respondents-Authorities to place the petitioner at Sr. No. 473-A in the seniority list of Assistants dated 18th september 1979, with all consequential benefits such as deemed date of promotion in the cadres of Section Officer and Under Secretary and further promotional post that may be available to the petitioner.

( 2 ) ACCORDING to the petitioner, the case of the petitioner was required to be considered by the respondents-Authorities in its true spirit as per the directions and observations made by this Court in the oral Judgement dated 9th April 1986 delivered in Special civil Application No. 3540 of 1983 with regard to fixation of his seniority in the cadre of Assistant in the secretariate service in view of the fact that petitioner had served as assistant continuously with effect from 12th September 1971.

( 3 ) IT is the case of the petitioner that, initially, the petitioner was appointed as clerk in the Gujarat public Service Commission (gpsc for short) and, thereafter, the petitioner came to be confirmed as clerk by order dated 28th January 1968 in the GPSC itself. By order dated 9th September 1971, the petitioner was promoted as Assistant in the GPSC and the same was regularised by the GPSC by order dated 15th October 1977 and the petitioner continued to serve as Assistant as such. It is the case of the petitioner that, pursuant to the offer made, along with five direct recruit Assistants of the GPSC, the petitioner had also expressed his willingness to join the Secretariate service in sachivalaya as Assistant with a specific rider that his seniority in the cadre of Assistant is to be maintained with effect from 12th September 1971 though the petitioner was a promotee assistant, and other five assistants of the GPSC who had also expressed their willingness to join the Secretariate as assistants along with the petitioner were taken up in the establishment of the Secretariate as assistant. The petitioner was posted in the Secretariate by order dated 11th July 1978. Thereafter, the respondents had fixed seniority of the petitioner not as assistant but as clerk at Sr. No. 314-A in the case of clerk-cum-typists in Sachivalaya seniority list dated 18th September 1980 by order dated 17th May 1982.

( 4 ) THE petitioner had challenged the said order dated 17th May 1982 fixing his seniority not as assistant but as clerk in the cadre of clerk-cum-typist in sachivalaya by filing Special Civil Application No. 3540 of 1983, and prayed for appropriate seniority in the cadre of assistants in the Secretariate with effect from 12th September 1971, on the basis of his continuous officiation, and for all consequential benefits of promotion and seniority. 4. 1 the claim of the petitioner to fix his seniority as assistant on the basis of continuous officiation as assistant with effect from 12th September 1971, was opposed by the respondents by filing affidavit-in-reply. It was submitted before the Court that the petitioner was a promotee assistant and his seniority in the cadre of clerk cum typist in the Secretariate service was fixed in accordance with law by the Authority. It was further contended that the assistants who were direct recruits formed a separate class, as compared to the petitioner who was directly recruited clerk and he got promotion as assistant by passage of time and, therefore, the case of the petitioner cannot be equated with the case of other assistants in the office of the respondents who were directly recruited as assistants and, hence, the seniority of the assistants, as maintained by the respondents, when they were sent by the office of the gpsc to the Secretariate had to be separately treated and, therefore, the petitioner cannot be given the same treatment as directly recruited assistant in the office of the