(1.) This petition has been filed by the three Petitioners all of whom at the time of filing of the petition were working as Deputy and Joint Registrars in the Department of Cooperation in the State. Their grievance is that they have wrongly not being considered for appointment to the duty post in the H.P. Administrative Service (HAS). The stand of the Respondent is that the Petitioners do not fall in the feeder category of posts which have to be taken into consideration for appointment to the HAS.
(2.) To understand the controversy, it would be apposite to refer to Rule 7 of the Himachal Pradesh Administrative Service Rules, which reads as follows:
(3.) According to the State since the present Petitioners are not holding the post of Assistant Registrar Cooperative Societies and have already been promoted to higher posts they are not eligible for being considered for appointment to the HAS.