A.C. Upadhyay, J.

1. How the inter-se-seniority of officers is to be determined, when officers are taken from different departments, on transfer to a new department and a new cadre of officers is created, is the issue involved in the present writ petition. Questions posed for answer is whether determination of seniority in the newly created cadre would be on the basis of total length of service of the officer in the post before his transfer or on the basis of total length of service of the officer in the Government service. To answer the above question, it would apposite to extract herein below, factual matrix leading to the situation.

2. On the recommendation of the Public Service Commission (PSC), the petitioner was initially appointed as Assistant Engineer (Electrical) in Public Works Department (PWD) With effect from 27.07.1989.

In August 1991, notification was issued by the Commissioner, Public Works Department (PWD), bifurcating the PWD, into PWD and the Department of Power. Consequently, the petitioner became part of the Department of Power and continued to hold the post of Assistant Engineer (Electrical). In November 2003, the Department of Power was bifurcated into De