1. At the time of filing of the Original Application before the Tamil Nadu Administrative Tribunal, Chennai, the petitioner was aged 51 years and was working as Assistant in

Chozhapuram Town Panchayat, Thanjavur.

2. The Petitioner was originally appointed as a Bill Collector on 28.03.1981. Lateron, he was appointed as Junior Assistant, by transfer and his services were regularised in the said post.

3. According to the petitioner, he has passed the following tests:-

(1) Panchayat Development Test in 1986

(2) District Office Manual Test i in 1986

(3) Village Swaraj Test in 1987

(4) Community Development Manual Test in 1998

(5) Constitution of India Test in 1989, and

(6) Tamil Nadu District Municipalities Act Test in 1998.

4. The petitioner has submitted that his next avenue of promotion is the category of Executive Officer Grade II/Assistant/Head Clerk. According to the petitioner, he is fully qualified for promotion to the abovesaid category and when the vacancies arose, he made a representation dated 14.03.2002 to the respondents 1 and 2 to promote him to the abovesaid post. Whileso, the 2nd respondent promoted Mr.R.Sithivinayagamoorthi and Mr.V.Manohar as Head Clerks vide