V.K. Bali, C.J.

Rule 27(c) of the Kerala State and Subordinate Services Rules, 1959, hereinafter referred to as "KS & SSR", dealing with seniority reads as follows:-

"(c) Notwithstanding anything contained in clauses (a) and (b) above, the seniority of a person appointed to a class, category or grade in a service on the advice of the Commission shall, unless he has been reduced to a lower rank as punishment, be determined by the date of first effective advice made for his appointment to such class, category or grade and when two or more persons are included in the same list of candidates advised, their relative seniority shall be fixed according to the order in which their names are arranged in the advice list."

2. The appellants, who were respondents in the original lis, would endeavour to give literal meaning to the statute and in as much as the date of first effective advice in the matter of their appointment was prior in point of time from the petitioners in the original lis, now arrayed as respondents in this Writ Appeal, they would want us to declare them seniors. The petitioners, who succeeded in the matter of inter se seniority between them and the appellants in tu