JUDGMENT :

Vinod Chatterji Koul, J.-Petitioners, through the medium of instant writ petition, have sought the following relief:

“a) Mandamus: commanding the respondents particularly respondents 1&2 to give effect to the orders of promotion made in favour of the petitioners under Career Advancement Scheme, as Associate Professor/Senior Scientists from the date they have completed required number of years of service as Assistant Professors/Junior Scientists on the completion whereof, they became entitled to promotion as Associate Professor/Senior Scientists with all consequential benefits.

b) Certiorari: quashing the condition, which was imposed by respondent No. 2 in the orders of promotion of petitioners and where under the effect of promotion was given from the dates of petitioners joining, what is called as active services, being arbitrary, illegal and without authority.”

2. The brief facts of the case, as projected by petitioners in the writ petition, are that they were the employees of the Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agriculture Sciences and Technology of Kashmir, (for brevity ‘SKUAST, Kashmir’) and they migrated from Kashmir Valley in the year 1990, because of disturbances in the Kashmir Valley and started staying in Jammu as migrant employees like other Government employees who had also migrated to Jammu due to such turmoil in Kashmir. It is submission of petitioners that SKUAST, Kashmir, was created under the J&K University of Agriculture Sciences and Technology, Act, 1982 (for brevity ‘Act of 1982’) and up to 1998 there was one University for entire State and it had full-fledged campus in Jammu Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agriculture Sciences and Technology was established in Jammu (for brevity ‘SKUAST, Jammu’) as a separate University. It is contended that petitioners unfortunately had to migrate from the Kashmir as they belong to minority community and after their migration, some of them were deputed by the University to undergo M. Sc. Agriculture and Ph.D., whereas some of them had been actively involved in teaching in Jammu. The petitioners, who had been deputed to undergo the courses of Ph.D., completed the same successfully. After bifurcation of the University, the petitioners were allowed to have the status of migrants and paid migrant salary. The State Government in respect of the employees, who had migrated due to turmoil, were given a nomenclature of migrant employees and were ordered to be paid migrant salary. The Government of Jammu and Kashmir issued a Government Order No. 362-GAD of 1992 dated 29.04.1992, whereby migrant employees had to be considered for promotion and the promotion was to be given effect on the condition of their joining the place of their posting on their promotion. It is also stated that the petitioners, under the Career Advancement Scheme (CAS) for teachers of SKUAST, became eligible for their promotion to the post of Associate Professor/Senior Scientists on completion of their eligibility period under the said Scheme, but were not promoted merely on the pretext that they had migrated and were putting up as migrant employees. The petitioners, who were entitled under CAS and having completed their requisite number of years as Assistant Professor/Junior Scientists, requested to be considered for promotion under the said Scheme to the post of Associate Professor/Senior Scientists immediately on completion of their eligibility period as was done in the cases of those who were similarly situated with the petitioners and also those who were junior to petitioners and who had been given the said benefit. It is also stated that petitioners were assured by the University that as and when their cases would be considered, they will be given the benefit of promotion from the date they completed their period. In the year 2009, they were asked to join back in Kashmir, so that their cases for promotion could be considered and the petitioners, accordingly, joined back in the Valley in 2009.The petit