Kuldip Singh, J.-The petitioners had filed Original Application No. 917 of 1997 in the Himachal Pradesh Administrative Tribunal and on abolition of the Tribunal, the Original Application No. 917 of 1997 was transferred to this Court under Himachal Pradesh Administrative Tribunal (transfer of decided and pending cases and applications) Act, 2008 and thereafter, the Original Application No. 917 of 1997 has been registered in this Court as CWP(T) No.4333 of 2008.

2. The petitioners through this petition have prayed for quashing of order dated 1.5.1997 Annexure A-1 vide which respondent No.3 was promoted as Kanungo, prayer has also been made for a direction to respondents No. 1 and 2 to fill up the post and all other posts of Kanungos falling vacant in future on the basis of the day the Patwari acquires the eligibility criteria of promotion and as and when the promotional post becomes available.

3. The further case of the petitioners is that they were appointed as Patwaris on different dates in the years 1981 to 1984. they had already completed 14 to 16 years of continuous service as confirmed Patwari. The Rule 17 of the Recruitment and Promotion rules for the post of Kanung