1. WP(C) Nos. 7/2013, 2958/2014, 5470/2014 and 05/2015 being inter-related, those were heard together and are being disposed of by this common judgment.

2. WP(C) No. 07/2013 has been filed by Shri Tilak Chandra Das and Shri Chandan Sarma as the petitioners seeking quashing of encadrement of respondent No. 7 Shri Debojit Das in the post of Executive Engineer (Civil), PWD (Roads) vide order dated 07-09-2005 issued by the Deputy Secretary to the Government of Assam, PWD. Petitioners are serving as Assistant Executive Engineer (Civil) and seek promotion to the post of Executive Engineer (Civil), PWD (Roads).

3. WP (C) No. 2958/2014 has been filed by Shri Pranab Kumar Rabha as the petitioner challenging the encadrement of respondent No. 4 Shri Debojit Das in the post of Executive Engineer (Civil) in PWD (Roads) vide order dated 07-09-2005. Further prayer made is for a direction to the respondents to promote the petitioner to the post of Executive Engineer (Civil) providing consequential seniority by recasting the gradation list of Executive Engineer (Civil). Like WP(C) No. 07/2013, petitioner in this case also seeks promotion to the post of Executive Engineer (Civil) from the feeder post of Assistant Executive Engineer (Civil) where petitioner is presently serving.

4. In WP(C) No. 5470/2014, petitioner is Shri Abdul Kader. He is serving as Executive Engineer (Civil) in the PWD. Challenge made in this petition is to the selection held on 17-10-2014 for promotion to the rank of Superintending Engineer (Civil) in the PWD and the consequential notification dated 21-10-2014 issued by the Secretary to the Government of Assam, PWD notifying the select list of officers for promotion to Superintending Engineer (Civil). Further prayer made is for a direction to the respondents to promote the petitioner to the post of Superintending Engineer (Civil). In this case, Shri Debojit Das is arrayed as respondent No. 13 and he was also promoted to the post of Superintending Engineer (Civil) vide the impugned selection and the consequential notification.

5. The last case in the bunch is WP(C) No. 05/2015 which has been filed by Shri Debojit Das. In the writ petition challenge has been made to the decision of the PWD to hold Review Selection Board meeting to review the selection for promotion to the rank of Executive Engineer (Civil) and Superintending Engineer (Civil) in the PWD. By filing additional affidavit, petitioner Shri Debojit Das has brought on record the minutes of the meeting of the Review Selection Board held on 05-01-2015 whereby the Selection Board recommended reversion of the petitioner Shri Debojit Das to the ex-cadre post of Executive Engineer, PWD. In the light of the above, petitioner Shri Debojit Das has extended his challenge to the proceedings of the Review Selection Board held on 05-01-2015.

6. Before deliberating in detail on the various facets of the lis involving the four writ petitions, it would be apposite to briefly mention at the outset that the controversy involved in this lis is basically two fold-firstly, encadrement of Shri Debojit Das in the cadre of Executive Engineer (Civil), PWD which amounts to regular promotion from the rank of Assistant Executive Engineer to the rank of Executive Engineer, and, secondly, promotion of Shri Debojit Das to the rank of Superintending Engineer (Civil) in the PWD. Both has been held to be illegal by the Review Selection Board pursuant to which consequential notifications were issued by the Government which have however been kept in abeyance in view of the interim order passed by this Court. Such decision of the State has been questioned by Shri Debojit Das in WP(C) No. 05/2015. It is thus seen that any decision rendered in WP(C) No. 05/2015, one way or the other, will have a material bearing on the outcome of the other three writ petitions. Accordingly WP(C) No. 05/2015 is taken up first for consideration.

WP(C) No. 05/2015

7. As noticed above, Shri Debojit Das is the petiti