GH QADIR DAR Vs. STATE OF J&K

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THESE four letters patent appeals arise from the common judgment of the learned Single Judge in two writ petitions filed by the same petitioners. They filed SWP no.1208/1986 for quashing the order of the Director General of Police (DGP) dated 3rd December, 1985 directing that the appellants and others who were brought on promotion list ËœEâ„¢ on 25th April, 1978 - barring those who stood otherwise disqualified and had so far not been promoted as Sub -Inspectors (SI) - shall be deemed to have been promoted as SI for the purpose of seniority with effect from 25th April, 1978 i.e. the date when they were brought on the promotion list. The petitioners further sought mandamus on the official respondents not to take into consideration the said order of Ëœnotionalâ„¢ promotion in preparing list ËœFâ„¢ or giving promotions to the post of Inspector, and to declare them (writ -petitioners) as senior to the respondents. Alleging that the file of SWP no.1208/1986 was not traceable in the Registry and expressing an apprehension that the promotion to the post of Deputy Superintendent of Police (Dy. SP) from the impugned seniority list was in offing, they filed SWP no.3586/1997. Besides reiterating the reliefs sought in the earlier writ petition, they prayed for quashing government order dated 6th February, 1997 promoting Inspectors to the post of Dy. SP without determining the inter se seniority of Inspectors of J&K Armed Police and Inspectors of the Executive Police. They also sought quashing of the seniority list of Inspectors of J&K Executive / Armed / Auxiliary Police dated 30th May, 1997, and a mandamus upon the respondents not to make any promotion to the post of Dy. SP without deciding the inter se seniority between the direct recruit SIs i.e. the petitioners and promotee SIs i.e. the respondents of SWP no.1208/1986. Allowing the writ petitions, the learned Single Judge quashed the order dated 3rd December, 1985 with direction to the official respondents to place the writ petitioners above the private respondents in the seniority list of SIs appointed by promotion after 25th April, 1979, and accordingly re -draw the seniority list giving them all consequential benefits.

(2.) FEELING aggrieved by the said order / direction of the learned Single Judge, the private respondents - four out of them in all - as well as the State of J&K have preferred these appeals.

(3.) IT is the admitted position that the writ petitioners (hereinafter referred to as the respondents) as well as the appellants have been promoted to the post of Dy. SP on substantive basis during the intervening period. In fact, the appellants have further been placed as Superintendents of Police (SP) on officiating basis though in their own pay and scale.