N. KOTISWAR SINGH, J.

1. Heard Mr. S.K. Das, learned counsel for the petitioner as well as Mr. H. Sarma, learned counsel for all the respondents.

2. The petitioners are presently serving as Assistant Health Inspectors under the Guwahati Municipal Corporation, Guwahati. The petitioner No. 1 who is an Arts Graduate was initially appointed as a Supervisor on 18.04.1984 and the petitioner No. 2, a Science graduate, as Supervisor on 04.09.1984 and thereafter, their services were regularized along with 6 incumbents on 28.01.1985.

3. Subsequently, they were promoted to the posts of Assistant Health Inspector vide a common order dated 07.09.2007 and have been discharging their duties in the aforesaid capacity till now without any further promotional avenue or opportunity offered by the respondent authorities. According to the petitioners, this amounts to stagnation in service more so, when according to the petitioners some persons who were appointed along with them as Supervisors later, had been absorbed as LDAs and had been given promotion to higher post of UDAs and later to the post of Deputy Rank Officer. The post of Deputy Rank Officer is higher than the Assistant Health Officer. The promotion of the petitioners to the aforesaid post of Deputy Rank Officer had been denied by the respondent authorities by contending that the said post of Deputy Rank Officer comes under the establishment section to which promotion can be made only from the feeder posts of UDA and Assistant Tax Superintendent only and since the petitioners are holding the posts of Assistant Health Inspector they cannot be considered for promotion to the said post. It has been submitted by the petitioners that after the post of Assistant Health Inspector, there is no higher post available to consider their promotion.

4. The petitioners contended that a similarly situated person namely, Ganesh Deka who was appointed as a Supervisor in the same year as the petitioners, after being absorbed as an LDA was given promotion to the higher post of UDA and subsequently promoted to the post of Deputy Rank Officer.

5. The case of the petitioners is that if such a person who is similarly situated as the petitioners could be given promotion to the higher ranked post of Deputy Rank Officer, the petitioners could also be considered for promotion to the higher post or create such promotional avenues so that they get similar benefits as far as their career advancement is concerned. Accordingly, the petitioners have approached this Court for appropriate directions in this regard.

6. Learned counsel for the petitioners submits that the petitioners after being appointed as Assistant Health Inspectors on 07.09.2007 have remained in the same status without any promotional avenues unlike in the Establishment section who are provided with promotional avenues.

7. The stand of the GMC is that the post of Deputy Rank Officer comes under the Establishment section and the posts of Supervisor and Assistant Health Inspector come under the Health section of the GMC, which are different, distinct and separate sections and not connected with each other. Since, under the Health section, the highest post available is Assistant Health Inspector to which the petitioners have been already promoted, they cannot have any grievance that there is no promotional avenue or that they have been discriminated. As far as the said Ganesh Deka is concerned, he was given promotion to the post of Deputy Rank Officer after his appointment as Supervisor was converted and absorbed as an LDA as per the approval of the Government. As per rules, as an LDA, as he became an eligible for promotion to the post of UDA, he was promoted as UDA and thereafter, on fulfilling the necessary qualifications he was given promotion to the higher post of Deputy Rank Officer in the Establishment section. Accordingly, it has been contended by the learned counsel for the respondent authorities that the case of the petitioners cannot be compared