ORDER

(Pronounced by Hon'ble Mr. M. Swaminathan, Judicial Member)

This OA has been filed by the applicants seeking the following relief:

“To call for the records relating to impugned File No. LDCE- 2022/AE/Exam/13, dated 16.02.2023, issued by the 2nd respondent and consequently direct the respondents to conduct a separate LDCE examination for respective vacancy years after addressing the various issues raised in this Original Application and pass such further or other orders as may be deemed fiT and proper”

2. The facts leading to the filing of the OA are as follows:

The Applicants initially joined as Junior Engineers in the Civil and Electrical Wings of the respondent's department and were later promoted on an ad hoc basis to Assistant Engineers. According to the Recruitment Rules for Assistant Engineers, the method of recruitment is 80% by promotion from Junior Engineers with five years of service and 20% from through a Limited Departmental Competitive Examination (LDCE) for Junior Engineers with four years of service. However, due to administrative delays, the department failed to make promotions as per the set quotas and instead relied on ad hoc promotions. In 2014, an LDCE Notifica