Hon’ble Rajan Roy, J.—Heard Shri Jaideep Narain Mathur, learned Senior Advocate assisted by Shri Dhruv Mathur, Shri Asit Chaturvedi, learned Senior Advocate assisted by Shri Shireesh Kumar, for the petitioners, Shri Prashant Chandra, learned Senior Advocate assisted by Shri Chandra Shekhar Pandey, Shri H.G.S. Parihar, learned Senior Counsel assisted by Shri saharsh, Shri Sandeep Dixit, Shri Sudeep Seth, Shri Upendra Nath Mishra, Digvijai Singh,P.N.Singh Kaushik,Pradeep Raje,Pranshu Agarwal,Praveen Tripathi, Tariq M. Khan, learned counsel appearing for the contesting opposite parties and the learned Standing Counsel for the State.

2. This special bench was constituted by order of the Hon’ble Chief Justice for disposal of above mentioned Writ Petition No. 16569 (SB) of 2016 in terms of the directions of the Supreme Court dated 1.7.2016 passed in Writ Petition (C) No. 322 of 2016. The other Writ Petition bearing No. 1880(SB) of 2017 was connected with it as the issues involved were inter-linked.

3. Both the writ petitions raise a seniority dispute with regard to the members of the Higher Judicial Service (hereinafter referred to as ‘the HJS’) in the State of U.P.

4. For a clea