Surinder Singh, Judge (Oral) The present petition was pending in the erstwhile H.P. State Administrative Tribunal. On its abolition, it was transferred to this Court and registered as Civil Writ Petition.

2.Heard and gone through the record.

3.The petitioners herein, are the diploma holder Junior Engineers (JE’s) of Electricity Department. They belong to the Scheduled Caste (S.C.) category.

4.Precisely, the petitioners seek the mandamus that they should have been considered to the post of Assistant Engineer (C/M) from the date, it fell due and not the subsequent dates of their promotion.

5.It shall not be out of place to mention here that earlier the petitioners had also filed OA (D) No. 1985/1991 against the respondent-Board.While disposing of the said OA, the learned Tribunal in para­25 in its judgment observed and held as under:-

“25. Keeping in view the case law discussed above and the fact that on the basis of 15% reservation 7 posts were available to be filled up from amongst the Scheduled Caste Junior Engineers (Diploma Holders) to the post of Assistant Engineer, the act of respondents in ignoring the applicant falling under the zone of consideration is unjust, illegal