Sudhanshu Dhulia, J.

1. Heard Mr. B.D. Upadhyaya, Senior Advocate assisted by Ms. Soniya Chawla, learned counsel for the petitioner, Mr. Avtar Singh Rawat, Senior Advocate assisted by Mr. Kartikey Hari Gupta, Mr. Vinay Kumar and Mr. Vipul Sharma, learned counsel for the private respondents and the interveners at length on various occasions.

2. The petitioners before this Court are Sub-Inspectors in Uttarakhand Civil Police, who have filed these writ petitions with the prayer of writ, order or direction in the nature of certiorari for quashing the orders dated 13.07.2016 and 28.03.2016 (Annexure Nos. 1 and 2 to the writ petition respectively). The prayer is common in the two writ petitions, however, for the sake of convenience the facts which are narrated are the ones which relate to Writ Petition No. 1432 of 2016 (S/S).

3. Primarily the prayer of the petitioners before this Court is for quashing the order dated 13.07.2016 passed by the Principal Secretary, Government of Uttarakhand by which the representation of the petitioners for calculating their seniority from the year 2001 on the post of Sub-Inspector has been rejected and it has been held that the petitioners will be g