Tinlianthang Vaiphei, J.

1. In this writ petition, the petitioners are seeking direction from this court to restrain the respondent authorities from promoting the Junior Engineers, who are juniors to them, to the post of Assistant Engineer in the normal cadre without first regularising the services of the petitioners in the normal cadre from ex-cadre posts held by them and to comply with the direction given by this Court in its judgment and order dated 14.8.2008 passed in WP (C) No. 4767 of 2007. Before proceeding further, the facts of the case, as pleaded by the petitioners, may be noticed briefly. The petitioners are three years Diploma holders in Engineering and were appointed as Junior Engineers in the Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) on various dates and posted at various places. Their initial dates of joining in the respective posts held by them are as under:

Sl No.	Date of joining as Junior Engineers
Petitioner No.1.	05.10.1983
Petitioner No.2.	15.02.1982
Petitioner No.3.	02.12.1981
Petitioner No.4	10.12.1981
Petitioner No.5	01.12.1981
Petitioner No.6	28.09.1983
Petitioner No.7	06.10.1983
Petitioner No.8	16.06.1979

2. The petitioners are governed by a set of Rules called The Assam Public Health Engineering Services Rules, 1996 ("the Rules" for short), which prescribes the norms and procedures about the method of recruitment of Junior Engineer as well as Assistant Engineers. The petitioners have fulfilled all the criteria for promotion to the post of Assistant Engineer. By the letter dated 16.12.1995, the Deputy Secretary to the Government of Assam, PHED requested the Chief Engineer (PHE), Assam (Respondent No. 3) to submit the Annual Confidential Reports (ACRs) of the Junior Engineers whose names were mentioned therein at least for five years i.e., 1990-91 to 1994-1995 and also informed them that the Selection Board meeting for selecting Junior Engineer (PHE) for promotion to the post of Assistant Engineer would be held in due course. Subsequently, by the letter dated 3.3.1997, the Deputy Secretary promoted 10 (ten) Junior Engineer to the post of Assistant Engineer (PHE) with effect from the date of taking over the charges: the petitioners have no grievance against them. However, as the particulars of the petitioner Nos. 3 and 4 also figured in the said letter dated 16.12.1995 for promotion to the post of Assistant Engineer, they had the legitimate expectation that their cases would also be considered for the post of Assistant Engineer but their expectations were frustrated. The Under Secretary, PHED, Assam subsequently issued Notification dated 12.2.2004 publishing the final inter-se seniority list of the cadre of Junior Engineer (PHE) of the department wherein the names of the petitioners also found a place. Their names figured at Serial Nos. 40, 46, 26, 19, 60, 77, 48 and 42 respectively. In this inter-se seniority list, the incumbents whose particulars were found at Sl. No. 1 to 4 and 13 had already retired from service on superannuation. The case of the petitioners is that even though the ACRs of the petitioners and others were requisitioned in the year 1995 for promotion to the post of Assistant Engineer, only 10 out of 36 candidates were given promotion to the post of Assistant Engineer in the regular cadre in the year 1997. As noticed earlier, on 10.2.2006, the Secretary to the Govt. of Assam, PHED issued a notification promoting Junior Engineer like the petitioners, among others, to officiate in the post of Assistant Engineer (Ex-cadre) in the interest of public service and as per the policy decision taken to extend promotional benefits to the Junior Engineers serving in the same cadre post for more than 20 years or more according to their inter-se seniority positions. It was clarified in the said notification that the post of Assistant Engi