JUDGMENT

M.S. Ramachandra Rao, J.

This Letters Patent Appeal is filed challenging judgment dt.29.09.2016 in CWP-9073-2015.

2. The respondents No.1 to 19 had filed the said Writ Petition for a Writ of Certiorari to quash orders dt.14.10.2013 and 05.12.2013 passed by appellant No.2 and had also sought a direction to the appellants to promote respondents No.1 to 19 as Senior Assistants as per their seniority from the date their juniors had been promoted as Senior Assistants along with all consequential benefits.

3. The promotion to the post of Senior Assistant is provided under Rule 8(1)(d)(ii) of the Punjab Police Clerical Services (State Service Class III) Rules, 1960 [hereinafter referred to as the 'Rules'].

4. Rule 8(1)(d) of the Rules states:

"In the case of Assistants Class-I

(i) by direct appointment; or

(ii) by promotion from amongst Clerks with 5 years minimum service and junior-scale stenographers with 5 years minimum service including one year's minimum experience as Clerk;

(iii) by selection from among officials employed in departments of Government other than the Police Department."

(Emphasis Supplied)

5. Rule 11 of the Rules deals with the Seniority of members of the Service and states:

"Seniority of members of the Service:-

Subject to the provision of Punjab Services Integration Rules, 1957 the seniority Inter-se of members of the service holding the same class of posts shall be determined by the dates of their joining appointments to such posts in the Service.

Provided that in the case of members appointed directly the order of merit determined by the Commission or the Board, as the case may be, shall not be disturbed;-

Provided further that in the case of two or more members joining their appointments in the same class of posts on the same date, their seniority shall be determined as follows:-

(a) a member recruited by direct appointment shall be senior to a member recruited otherwise;

(b) a member recruited by promotion shall be senior to a member recruited by transfer;

(c) in case of members, who are recruited by promotion or transfer, seniority shall be determined according to the seniority of such members in the appointments from which they were promoted or transferred;

(d) in the case of members recruited by transfer from different cadres, their seniority shall be determined accordingly to pay, preference being given to a member who was drawing a higher rate of pay in his previous appointment; and if the rates of pay drawn be also the same, then by their length of service, and in case their lengths of service also happen to be the same, an older member shall be senior to a younger member.

Note:- (1) The posts of clerks, steno-typist and Junior Scale Stenographers shall be treated as the 'same class of posts' for the purpose of preparing a joint seniority list for making promotions to higher posts, their seniority Inter-se reckoning from their dates of joining the posts.Whenever a Steno-typist is promoted as Junior-Scale Stenographer involving the supersession of the some other Steno-typist senior to him, the senior to him, the seniority of the promoted official on the joint seniority list vis-a-vis the other clerks and stenographers would remain undisturbed except that the superseded Steno-typist to the Steno-typists as the case may be, would be brought down on the joint seniority list so as to rank junior to the Steno-typist who has been found suitable for promotion.

(2) Similarly, the posts of Senior- scale Stenographer, Assistant and Head Clerks should be interchangeable and treated, as the 'same class of posts' for the purposes of preparing a joint-seniority