(1.) Heard Mr. S. Biswajit, learned counsel appearing for the petitioners, Mr. Lenin Hijam, learned Advocate General assisted by Ms. Caroline, learned counsel appearing for the respondents No. 1, 2 and 3 and Mr. A. Mohendro, learned counsel appearing for some of the private respondents.
(2.) The petitioners, 12 (twelve) in number, were all appointed as Office Assistants (LDA) in the General Administration Department under the Die-in-Harness Scheme during the period between 18/2/2016 to 21/11/2016 and they have been serving as regular Government employees for the last about six years. On the other hand, all the private respondents were appointed as Office Assistants (LDA) as direct recruit candidates on 1/12/2016. Accordingly, the petitioners were appointed earlier than the private respondents.
(3.) The next promotional post from the post of Office Assistant (now Secretariat Assistant) is the post of Senior Office Assistant (now Senior Secretariat Assistant) and according to the petitioners, they are all eligible and qualified for promotion to the next higher post in terms of the relevant rules. It is the case of the petitioners that there is at present more than 100 vacant posts of Senior Secretariat Assistant available in the General Administration Department and as a measure for filling up the vacant posts, the authorities issued a Tentative Inter-se-Seniority List of Secretariat Assistants of Manipur Secretariat by issuing a Notification dtd. 5/11/2020 calling for claims and objections to the fixation of the Inter-se-Seniority. In the said Tentative Inter-se-Seniority List, the names of the petitioners are placed above the names of the private respondents.